


The Straight And Arrow

by Arctimon



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014), Big Hero 6: The Series (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:20:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 62,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25651261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arctimon/pseuds/Arctimon
Summary: Hiro Hamada thought things had settled down for the summer. He thought wrong. Hiro will have to walk the fine line between civilian and superhero as he's forced to deal with not just his identity possibly being exposed and whatever's going on with Megan, but a brand new villain that may take all down all of them at once. Slight Hiro/Karmi and a little Hiro/Megan for flavor.  The finale, Upshot, is now up!
Relationships: Hiro Hamada & Karmi, Hiro Hamada/Karmi, Megan Cruz & Hiro Hamada, Robbie Reyes/Go Go Tomago, Wasabi-No Ginger/Aspen Matthews
Comments: 17
Kudos: 36





	1. Fletcher

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation. I also don't own the familiar faces and cameos you'll be seeing here as well. The last names of the police officers are, of course, owned by the wonderful and talented crew of the cartoon._

* * *

_**Chapter 1 – Fletcher** _

The San Fransokyo Police Department.

A pillar of honor, service, and tradition for the city of San Fransokyo.

Many cadets had graced its hallways in the nearly two centuries of its existence. Some went on to do great things in other places in the country. Others fizzled out.

But nearly all of them would agree on one thing-

"Why can I never find a parking spot? I'm the Chief, for goodness sake."

...You know, I would really like to be able to finish an intro without being interrupted. Just once.

Finally finding a space between two patrol cars, Chief Diego Cruz slid his own cruiser into the spot. He had about six inches of room to fit his body out of the car, but with a mighty heave, he popped out with all of his belongings.

"The first thing I need to commission when we talk to the mayor about the budget...a nice, shiny parking spot for the chief of police."

"You'd never use your sway to get anything petty like that, right sir?"

Cruz looked to his left to see a man walking up to him. His trimmed black hair was perched over a very large cup of coffee, his beady eyes widening with each passing sip.

"Morning, Detective Kato."

"Morning, Chief." He took another swig as the two men headed toward the front door of the building. "Nice day today, isn't it?"

"It's six in the morning. It's not technically day yet."

"I think the laws of time would disagree with you."

They threw the doors to the building open, and after nodding to the officer at the desk, they made their way to Cruz's office. On the way, a few officers, fresh off of their shifts, were walking in the opposite direction, wearing their civilian clothes and holding donuts in their hands.

"Duncan bringing in food again?"

"Probably." Kato took another sip. "I think he's legally obligated to with that name."

Cruz opened the door to his office and set down his bag on the floor, noting the giant pile of paperwork in his inbox. "Man. I keep telling myself that I'm going to get to all of this and I never do."

"It's mostly departmental stuff. You could bum it off on a newbie."

"Nah, I don't want to set that sort of precedent." He took the top page and inspected it. "Hm." He grabbed his pen and threw down his signature, setting the paper in his empty Outgoing tray. "One order of business down. I feel productive already."

"I bet you didn't even read that, did you?"

"Of course I did."

"Then what was it about?"

"...None of your business."

Kato laughed. "You could have just signed on Megan to do coroner duty over at the morgue, and you wouldn't be any the wiser."

Cruz's eyes widened in shock. "Uh oh. That _is_ something she would do."

The detective sat down for a moment while Cruz reviewed the document for any irregularities. "By the way, how _is_ Megan doing? She's had a pretty eventful last few months."

"She's officially not grounded as of today," he responded, squinting down at the paper. "But since school's off for the summer, I can only imagine the kind of trouble that she's going to get into now."

"Teenage daughters. Gotta love them."

"You're telling me." He peered over the page to look at Kato. "You have three of them."

" _Had._ They're all in college now. Completely out of my hair...or what's left of it."

Cruz plucked his hat off of the coat rack and set it on his head. "Well, time for me to go get patrols squared away. You coming?"

"I wish, but I got a breakfast burrito with my name on it being delivered to my office right about now." Kato patted the doorframe as he walked through it. "Plus I have a cold case to work on that needs my attention. Maybe I'll see you at lunch?"

"John."

The Asian detective turned back towards Cruz, who was giving him an odd look. "You're a good man. You're also a very good cop. I want you to know that."

Kato shook his head slightly, smirking. "Are you still on the apology tour after everything you said about Big Hero 6, Diego? Look, while some of the guys are still bitter about everything, I got over it. I knew you'd come around."

He got up from his chair, notebook in hand, and started the trek to the door. "You could have easily had this job before I got here. I think the higher-ups like you more than me."

"You think I want to deal with _that_?" he responded, pointing toward the leaning tower of paperwork. "Nah, I'm fine where I am. Besides, you have such a way with the 'kids'." He patted Diego on the back and he made off down the hallway. "Have fun, Chief."

Cruz chuckled as he shut his office door. Detective Kato was one of the first officers who welcomed him and Megan when they came to San Fransokyo, and they had remained friends in their short time there. There had been some animosity, of course. What police precinct didn't have problems? But they were more compounded by the superhero team that inhabited the city limits.

It also didn't help that the leader of said team was the nephew of his friend, Cass Hamada. _That_ had been even more of a shock. But they had come together when the city needed it, defeating Trina and making the city safe again.

Which was his job.

The job that he took an oath to do, as had everyone else in the building.

It was no time at all before he reached the conference room. He slowly put his hand on the knob, steeling his face into something less happy.

"OK, Diego. You still have to be serious. You have a lot of work to do before this group can handle things on their own..."

With that, he threw open the door, much to the surprise of all of the officers inside. One of them in the back fell completely out of his chair, and the chatter between the fifteen or so people shut down immediately.

"Alright, people! At attention!"

The officers scrambled to clean themselves up. It was comical to see everyone go from relaxed to stiff as a board in two seconds flat.

Almost.

"We got a busy day ahead of us, so I want everyone to pay close attention. Got it?"

"Yes, sir!" they said in unison.

Cruz almost smiled again. Ahh, cadets. Gotta love them.

He spent the next fifteen minutes going over random potential scenarios, and the newbies were furiously writing down everything as fast as they could. Cruz hearkened back to his own early days, where all he had was a uniform and an open mind. There was a lot he had to learn back then, but it paled in comparison to the world he lived in now.

"I think that's enough for right now," he said, and not a moment too soon; it looked like some of the officer's eyes were beginning to gloss over. "I'm going to split you guys off for patrol." He moved his pen down the list of names on his notebook. "Juwono, you're with Motz. Heneveld, you're with Flynn. Good and Stevenson, you two are together. Ono, it's you and Kalayeh. Ling, you're with Poliquin. Jaffe, partner up with Buongirono." He slapped his book closed. "If I didn't call your name, head to the break room. I'll be there in a little bit. Dismissed!"

The men and women returned his salute and quickly exited the room. Cruz sighed at the myriad amount of empty cups left behind. He started picking them up and throwing them away. The glamour of being the main man in charge...

The entrance was thrown open, and a young woman came inside, her uniform a mess. The aviator sunglasses on her face were comically large and tinted a dark purple. The headband keeping her ponytail down was the same color, almost blending into her jet black hair.

"Sir! I'm sorry I'm late, sir."

As if he was expecting it, Cruz bent over to the podium to see the only name on his list without a check mark on it. "Well, that makes the third time this week. I'm beginning to think that you don't want to be here..."

He looked up back at her face.

"Bishop."

"I do want to, sir!" The woman stood up at attention, a stray bang over her glasses. "My phone is just on the fritz. My alarm won't set properly. It won't happen again."

"At ease, Bishop."

Her shoulders relaxed, but only slightly.

"You didn't really miss anything. Just patrols. In fact, I have one ready for you already..."

He put a check mark next to her name.

"You get to ride along with Simmons."

Bishop pushed her glasses up, her blue eyes widened with horror. "Simmons? Really, sir? I would rather prefer to be out on my own."

"Yeah, and I would like to have my cadets show up on time, but the world's weird like that, isn't it?"

She bit her bottom lip. "Sir, I really don't want to go with Old Man Simmons. He..." She looked both ways before leaning in. "He smells like cheese."

Cruz let out a laugh. "Bishop, I'm not going to disagree with you. He does have a certain...aroma about him." He grabbed his notebook and started out the door. "But this is his last week before he retires. Besides...I think he likes you."

"Please don't tell me that, sir."

"You should be thanking me. It'll be an easy patrol. Enjoy it. Try to relax a little bit. It's not the end of the world." He went into the hallway and headed back toward his office. Maybe he could get some of that mountain of paperwork done while he had some free time...

"Sir."

He hadn't even taken five steps before he found that Bishop was standing in front of him. She had moved so fast she was still panting from her sudden movement. She took a second to suck in some wind before standing up again.

"Permission to speak freely, sir."

Cruz shrugged, a little confused. "Permission...granted?"

That was apparently what she was waiting for. "Chief Cruz, with all due respect, I'm not a cadet. I was an officer over in Neo York. I know what to do. You don't have to lump me in with these new guys. I'm ready."

"For what, exactly? In case you haven't noticed, Bishop, things have been quiet ever since the summer started. Why are you in such a rush to find danger?"

The woman didn't respond.

"Kate." Cruz put a hand on her shoulder. "I know you're eager to prove yourself. But I _did_ read the file that Neo York sent over on you. You're good...but you're also inconsistent. And considering what happened to you and-"

"That's irrelevant, sir." She slipped her glasses back down over her eyes. "I'm ready _now_."

He bent down over her, his face back to being serious.

"I'll be the judge of that, Bishop. Not you."

She looked like she was about to retort, but she kept her mouth shut, only letting out a little growl of frustration.

"I told Simmons to wait in the parking lot for you. Meet him out there in five. And _try_ to not be late next time, OK?"

"...Yes, sir."

"On your way, then."

Cruz walked off. If he had looked back at the woman, she would have seen a scowl creak across her face...

* * *

The same scowl that was still plastered on there a few hours later.

"Oh, lighten up, Bishop! It's a beautiful day out here. No clouds in the sky!"

She looked out the window in a fit of anger.

"I know you don't want to be with me, Bishop, but it could be worse." The old man tapped on the steering wheel. "You could be running around trying to fight robot teenage girls as they try to melt the entire city. Man, you should have been there for that."

"Would've been more exciting than this."

The car drove past a few more buildings, a smattering of people walking around between them. It stopped at a streetlight, and Simmons took the opportunity to look at his squad mate. "You got spunk, kid. Also a chip on your shoulder. That's good. But Chief's looking out for you. You'll be ready for the big leagues one day. Just not now."

"I _am_ ready now."

The radio started squawking, interrupting their conversation.

" _All available units, we have a Code 245 in progress down by the beachfront. Possible Big Hero 6 sighting as well. Please respond."_

Simmons nodded to Bishop. "You just might have your chance, kid."

Grinning, the woman picked up the radio and spoke into it. "Dispatch, this is Officer Bishop. Officer Simmons and I are available and en route. Copy."

" _Be advised that Chief Cruz has said all Big Hero 6-involved incidents are considered support only. You are to remain as backup unless the situation gets worse. Copy, please."  
_

Simmons saw that she was gripping the mic so tightly it looked like it was going to break into a million pieces. But a few seconds passed, and it was back up to her lips.

"...10-4."

She put it back on the stand and nodded forward. "Come on, old man. We got a job to do."

"Now _that's_ what I want to hear!"

The light above them turned green.

"Did you know that I used to drag race in the city back when I was young?"

"Is that releva _aaaahhhhh_!"

* * *

_A very quick drive to the beachfront later..._

Yeah, Kate. It sort of was.

Bishop stepped out of the vehicle and bent down, clutching her stomach. "I think I'm going to hurl."

"Oh, don't be so silly, Bishop." Simmons shut the door behind him. "That wasn't even my final form."

A crowd of people were hanging out near one of the storefronts as the two officers approached. They were all standing around an old-school metal garbage can, which was rattling and shaking out of control. Simmons parted through two people and poked at the lid. "Well, looks like we missed all the fun."

"Captain Cutie saved us all, mister!" one of the young kids squeaked out.

"Oh really?" he smiled down at him. "And how'd he do that?"

* * *

_About a half hour earlier..._

This was strange.

Aunt Cass was taking him out to lunch.

And _not_ at the Lucky Cat Cafe.

At the beachfront.

This wasn't the typical midday trip that Hiro Hamada would normally find himself in. In just the first couple weeks of summer, he had raced to save Robbie Reyes, Go Go's boyfriend (no quotations this time) from the clutches of a video game CEO psychopath, gone to visit the school psychiatrist at the "request" of both Professor Granville and Aunt Cass, and spent a day with her in the rain, on a stage, and in the house with another strange acquaintance of hers.

And that wasn't even taking into account the other personal stuff. Running away from home. Talking to Karmi about his disappearance.

Thinking about her every night.

"What flavor do you want, Hiro?"

Hiro shook the cobwebs out, glancing at the shaved ice selections. "Umm...pina colada is fine."

Aunt Cass handed him his cup, and the two strolled off down the sidewalk. It was another gorgeous day in San Fransokyo, and the two Hamadas had made the trip down to the beach. Hiro didn't know why, because when he had come downstairs to eat, he had seen Honey Lemon behind the counter and Aunt Cass whisking him away to the truck.

He hadn't minded; like he had mentioned to her before the trip to the festival, Hiro felt he had been neglecting to spend time with her. All of his time had been spent rescuing, recruiting, and building new things for the team. But it was nice to be alone with his aunt.

The free lunch wasn't bad, either.

And the shaved ice from Drake's was the icing on the cake.

"Let's sit here." Aunt Cass pointed to one of the unoccupied tables near the sand. "I want to talk to you about something."

"We could have just stayed at the house if you wanted to do that."

"I know, but I haven't been down here in so long. Besides, it's nice to get out every once in a while."

The two took their seats, Hiro biting into his ice. Aunt Cass turned her head slowly, taking in all of her surroundings.

"I used to come here all the time with May and Tommy."

Hiro's mouth stopped halfway back toward the cup.

"Mom and Dad brought us here and we made a whole day out of it. Shopping, swimming, the works. May would try to push Tommy into the ocean, but he was afraid of the water. I don't really know why." She paused to dip her spoon into her ice. "I just thought he didn't want to lose his glasses. Which was ironic, because even if he had done that, we could have just gotten him a new pair at the eye doctor."

Aunt Cass motioned to her right, and Hiro saw what she was referring to: a small, brick-faced building right on the corner of the cluster of stores. It wasn't anything remarkable to look at, except for the logo on the glass window. It was a giant realistic eye, the center iris purple. The word 'HAWKINS' was written over it.

"Do you remember Dr. Hawkins, Hiro?"

"Only a little bit. You took me there for an eye exam, right?"

"Yup. Trevor was our eye doctor too when we were young. He used to give out the biggest lollipops to all the kids too. Maybe that's why the dentist moved in a block away." She frowned at the piece of paper on the door. "He actually retired about a year ago. Moved to the countryside with his wife Lin. I'm actually surprised no one's occupying the building yet."

Hiro said nothing, instead focusing on the rest of his ice.

"Anyway, you're probably wondering why I brought you out here."

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Well, I wanted to be the first person to let you know...that you are officially off of probation."

"Huh?" His spoon hit the bottom of the cup. "I didn't know I was _on_ probation."

"I never told you, but I've been trying to keep you closer ever since you...ran away."

Hiro looked down at the table.

"And it was hard, because I know you're young and I know you have all of these things going on, and with you out of school for the summer, I thought I could try to spend some more time with you." Aunt Cass tucked some hair behind her ear. "I've worked so long in the cafe that I've forgotten what it was like to have a social life. But with your friends having graduated, I've been trying to take some more days off. I know that Honey Lemon and Wasabi and everyone aren't going to be around forever, so...I want to cherish these moments."

She paused for a beat.

"And it beats closing up early to get you out of jail."

He laughed along with her, his nervousness flowing away.

"Look, Hiro." He set her hand down on his. "I've told you this already, but I want you to know that I'm here for you. If something is wrong, please come talk to me. I don't want you to run away again. Because if something happened to you..."

"I won't."

Aunt Cass smiled at her nephew's response. "Thank you, Hiro. I really appreciate that. Now, why don't we go back home and-"

_"Run away!"_

A man went running by them, his hat floating off of his head.

"Now, that's a weird suggestion. Why would he-"

Both of them turned around in the direction that he had come from...and froze.

Right down near the boardwalk there was a large group of people also hightailing it toward them. What they were running _from_ was a tall brown-haired woman wearing a black heavy coat. The trim were colored a deep red. Her ponytail swayed back and forth as she swung the gray energy swords in her hands.

"Where is Big Hero 6?" the woman yelled, hacking away at a street sign. "I come all this way, and no one's here to greet me. Maybe one of _you_ can get me their number!"

The people on the beach started taking notice as well, and the screaming started picking up. Aunt Cass grabbed Hiro by the wrist, taking him down the sidewalk. "Stay with me, Hiro. I'm going to call the police."

Great. Just what he needed. A new villain parading around the area, and no way to discreetly contact the team.

He would have to improvise.

Aunt Cass ducked into a side alley as another crowd came barreling toward them. She was fumbling with her phone and she dialed 911. "Stupid cell. You should just be able to push a button and it connects to Emergency Services. Why would I have to remember three-"

She suddenly felt alone.

"Hiro?"

She whirled around on the spot, but there was a few bags of trash, a dumpster...but no Hiro.

"Oh my God. Hiro!?"

* * *

He felt bad for leaving his aunt behind, but certain things took priority, and dark-clothed sword-wielding supervillains was one of those things.

 _Aunt Cass will be fine_ , Hiro thought as he dialed the secure line. _Just focus on keeping everyone safe._

The other line picked up, but he didn't wait for the other person to talk. "Honey Lemon, you guys have to come out here! It's an emergency!"

* * *

"You bet it's an emergency!" Honey Lemon yelled into the phone, a giant crowd of people in the lobby. "Aunt Cass made today Half-Price Muffins, and I'm all out of chocolate chips! What am I going to do?"

_"Umm...what?"  
_

Go Go tore the phone out of the Latina's hand and spoke into it. "Nah, that's not it. She's making _me_ work here. I have an apron on and everything," she added, patting it down over her stomach.

" _We have a situation at the beach!"_

"Hiro," Go Go whispered as to not tip anyone off, "We're kind of busy right now. Wasabi's in the back, and Fred's off at some fundraiser. Even if we were able to go, I don't know how long it would take. I could send Baymax, but he's..."

She glanced over at the robot, who was currently taking another chance at latte art to a increasingly red-faced customer.

"...Occupied."

* * *

" _You might have to handle this on your own."_

Hiro growled at the phone as he hung up. "Yeah. That's what I was afraid of."

His Skymax landed right in front of him in the alleyway, and he suited up in record time. As he slapped his helmet over his head, the screaming got louder and closer. As he fit on the last glove, his brain got an idea.

"Wait, I do have someone here."

He looked back at the robot in front of him.

"Ready to be a hero, Skymax?"

* * *

" _Where are they?"_

The angry woman cut another lamppost in two as the citizens continued to run away from her. She stepped into the sand, muttering to herself. "Maybe there's another way I can get their attention. But I don't understand. They said they always patrol the city..."

"Excuse me."

She looked down to see a young boy, no older than four, sitting down on the beach and staring up at her. He pointed to her foot, which was thigh high in his creation.

"You broke my sand castle."

The swordswoman bent down to sneer at the kid. "Does it look like I care about your little castle, kid? I came for Big Hero 6, not you."

"You're a big meanie head."

She growled at him, but before she could respond...

"I agree with him."

The boy gasped and turned toward the sidewalk. "He's here!" He got up and trudged off to the newcomer, hugging his leg. "It's Big Hero 6!"

Hiro smiled underneath his visor. At least the boy hadn't learned about the name that Karmi had given him yet. "Your mom's worried about you. I have a friend who's going to take you to her, OK?"

The boy squealed with excitement as Skymax picked him up and rocketed off. Now alone, Hiro focused his attention on the woman.

"Your people are weird."

"That's what I like about them." He got himself into a ready stance. "They don't take any crap from supervillains."

"I wanted _all_ of you," she said, ignoring his snide comment. "Not just some kid in a costume!"

"Hey, that hurt! Besides, I'm more than enough to take you on."

"Rah!"

She stepped forward and both of her swords came down at him, ready to take off his head. But a full year of being swung at by Momakase (and once by Silver) was enough practice for Hiro. He ducked down and quickly grabbed both of her wrists and shot down a magnet disc, the coil wrapping around and pinning them together.

Hiro looked up to see her head was against his helmet, her angry breath clouding up his visor. "Sorry," he smirked, back to his cocky mode. "Didn't quite catch your name."

And that's when he noticed two additional appendages grow out of her shoulders, both in newly formed sleeves...and two brand new swords in her hands.

"They call me Coat of Arms."

The wicked smile was returned back to him.

"Want to know why they call me that?"

"I...can hazard a guess."

* * *

_Twenty seconds later..._

"You just _had_ to antagonize the villain, didn't you?"

Hiro was now running headlong down the beach, closely chased by a villain who was now wielding four swords.

For four times the laser awkwardness.

"I knew I should have stayed home today," he panted.

"Come back here and fight like a man!"

"I'm not technically a man yet!"

He looked over the space in front of him. There weren't any more civilians around, which was good, but his choice of metallic surfaces were running out; the few billboards around were wooden, and the lampposts were too thin to be of any use to his miniature magnets.

"Gotta get up high. Get some distance from her."

He aimed his gauntlet, the inside lighting up with energy.

"Hope this works."

Instead of a disc coming out the opening of his gauntlet, an energy coil shot out, the end wrapping around one of the lights above a shot. With a giant heave, he launched himself up onto the roof, out of reach of the madwoman behind him. He landed on the roof roughly, retracting the coil back into his glove.

"Hey, it actually worked," Hiro said, panting. "It's not as organic as Peni's, but it worked in a pinch. I'll have to tell her-"

The air behind him changed, and he turned around just in time to see Coat of Arms make the leap all the way up to the roof.

"Aw crap."

Hiro threw his head out of the way just in the nick of time; one of the sword tips sliced clean through his comm, the antenna dropping down in to the ally next to the shop.

And with a swift kick to the stomach, so did Hiro.

"Ahh!"

He slammed down into one of the dumpsters, only a few spare bags of trash cushioning his fall. He winced as a sharp pain shot through his arm. "Why can't I even land in a _full_ dumpster?"

The woman's feet slammed into the ground next to him, and he saw her head poke inside, her bangs wildly flowing around. "You put up a good fight, kid. But I have a job to do. It's time for you to-"

"Stop!"

Hiro's heart dropped. No. Anyone but her...

Coat of Arms turned around to see another person in the alley with them. She pointed a trembling finger at her as she took another step forward. "Stay away from him."

 _Run, Aunt Cass,_ Hiro thought. _You have to get out of here._

"Excuse me?" The villain's attention was now on Aunt Cass as she sauntered away from the dumpster. "I'm over here having a conversation with Big Hero 6, and you're getting in the way of it. You don't really know how this whole thing works, do you? I come in, they try to kick my butt, I defeat them, and so on and so forth. It doesn't involve you, woman."

"...Lisa?"

"Huh?"

Aunt Cass was studying her face, a look of realization materializing. "You're Lisa Molinari. I went to an art seminar downtown with you and your mom a few years ago. She even came by the cafe a few times."

"What?" Lisa said.

"What?" Hiro mirrored, now climbing out of the dumpster.

His aunt put her hands on her hips, her expression now serious. "Do your parents know that you're out here vandalizing property? Wait until I get a hold of them..."

" _Ugh."_ The villain groaned and slapped one of her hands over her face. "This is such a drag. The _first time_ you go out to be a bad guy, you get recognized. I knew I should've bought a mask or something. Whatever." She activated all of her swords. "One more point for the cred, I guess."

She tried to walk forward, but two of her arms were putting up resistance. Surprised, she looked back to see Hiro bracing himself, two coils fastened around the handles of her weapons.

"Stay away from her," he threatened.

"Oh, now _that's_ more like it! But are you forgetting, kid?" She wiggled the fingers of her two free hands. "Extra arms, remember?"

Two more coils shot out from Hiro's palms, completing the trap.

"I have two more arms, too."

His head turned up to the clouds above.

"Skymax! Now!"

The container robot flew down in front of Hiro and shot right at Coat of Arms, its head making contact with her chest. The two went barreling past Aunt Cass and up into the sky as Hiro yanked on all of the swords, now deactivated.

"Skymax! Time to take out the trash!"

Hiro spied the nearest metal garbage can and shot a disc at it, making contact as soon as his robot deposited the woman inside. Instantly, the circle on it shined green, the lid and the can now magnetically locked into each other.

"Although I'm sure the police will be picking you up instead..."

He barely managed to get through his quip before he fell backwards onto the ground, breathing heavily.

And then he got swept up in Aunt Cass's arms.

"Oh my God! You saved me!"

"Oxygen...I need oxygen..."

"Oh. Sorry." She gently set him down, but still had a look of amazement. "I can't believe it! I finally got saved by Big Hero 6! I need to take a picture of this..."

That didn't seem like a good idea. "My apologies, citizen!" Hiro said, putting on his best superhero voice. "I have to go back to...fighting villainy and...patrolling and all that great superhero stuff. Perhaps another time!"

"Well, at least take my card!" A business card got shoved into Hiro's helmet. "Cass Hamada. I do catering and events and I make everything fresh daily. Maybe your team needs me to bring some food or something."

"Sure." He slipped the card into his pocket. "I'll keep you in mind."

"Now that I'm looking at you..." Aunt Cass rubbed her chin, thinking hard. "You seem awfully familiar. You remind me of my nephew. You're even the same height..."

Now Hiro was panicking. He pressed a button on his gauntlet, and Skymax lowered itself behind him. "Gotta go! Take care, citizen!" He rocketed off, leaving Aunt Cass alone in the alley.

"Hm." She was still staring inquisitively up at the plume of smoke. "Definitely a fake voice too. I wonder who he is..."

Now safe from danger, people started coming out the shops and walking toward the still juttering trash can. The boy from before wound up and kicked it in the side, sticking his tongue out. "And that's for being a meanie head!"

"What do we do now?" one of the men said to his companion.

"I don't know," she responded. "Wait for the police to arrive?"

* * *

"And that's when you guys arrived."

"That is a very succinct account right there," Simmons said, impressed. "Hey Bishop, did you hear all of that?"

He saw Kate now stepping out of the alleyway, the four deactivated swords bundled under her arm. The sunglasses were hiding her tired look as she walked back toward the crowd. "Sorry. I got bored halfway through and gathered all the evidence."

"Well, _I_ thought it was very good," he added, rubbing the little boy's head. "Now, I'm guessing this little thing is what's still keeping her in there?" He pressed the top of the disc and the lid and can became unstuck.

Almost immediately, it fell over, and the woman named Lisa spilled out. She quickly slapped a spare banana peel off of her head and whirled around to face the crowd. "Where is he? Where's that stupid-"

Her eyes came down upon the two officers standing over her.

"What a drag."

"Put your hands behind your back."

Bishop held up her own handcuffs, matching her patrol partner.

"...All of them."

* * *

_That night..._

Kate slumped back into her chair, taking another bite out of her cereal. She wished she could say that the entirety of her shift had been just as eventful as the beach, but it wasn't meant to be. Coat of Arms (or Lisa, as her infuriated mother called her as she yanked her ear through the cell bars) was taken into custody along with all of her mechanical gadgets.

The rest of the day was spent on paperwork at her desk, trying to ignore the conversations floating around her. Paper balls was tossed, insults were flung, and the whole atmosphere seemed like a generic frat party. Only when Chief Cruz showed up was there any sort of semblance of order.

This wasn't what she had signed up for. She was no rookie. Even though she was only twenty-three, she had more experience under her belt than most people. What happened in Neo York saw to that...

Kate shook her head. The driving force behind her actions was double-edged; it pushed her to do more, but it also still hurt all this time later.

She held up her evidence bag. The metal disc inside seemed to still shine back at her in the low light of her apartment. It had to be run for prints to exclude everyone that may have touched it, including Simmons.

He was a nice guy. An old guy, and a...cheese-scented guy...but a nice one. Perhaps-

"No."

Kate set her bag down next to the other one.

The one with the purple helmet antenna in it.

The homemade fingerprinting kit made quick work of the dust and dirt on it, but lifting all of the smudged prints off of it had taken the entire night. But finally, with the help of her list of names and charts, she was able to narrow the list of shared suspects down to one.

"I'm going to find out who you are, Big Hero 6."

Kate set down her empty bowl next to the file folder.

"And I'm going to put a stop to you."

Her eyes glanced over the name at the tab, written in big, bold capital letters:

**HAMADA, HIRO**

"Before you have a chance to dispense your so-called _justice_ on anyone else."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** So, after a long time of teasing and hinting at who the last person showing up in the BH6 verse, it's finally here. Ladies and gentlemen...Kate Bishop is in the house.

More details are going to be strewn in the later chapters about her background and intentions, but all you really need to know right now is that she's a newly minted police officer at the San Fransokyo Police Department, she's very sure (and full) of herself, and she's got something to prove.

And that may be at the expense of Big Hero 6.

This story is sort of my take on what the whole arc with Chief Cruz really _should_ have been. It's not a secret that I find Cruz's storyline underwhelming, so we're going to try to rectify that a little bit. I also said before that this story was hinged on Chief Cruz still being around in the show. And he is, so that's good.

The next chapter will have Bishop pursue her lead on Hiro, as well as a conversation between two people that's probably going to agitate a few people.

And since I'm such a nice guy, I'm going to tell you who they are. It's Hiro and Megan.

Because this story is not just about finishing off the backup team. It's also about exploring what I think never got enough exposure in the show: the possible pairing of Hiro/Megan.

...I can hear the sounds of angry Karmiro fans already. But don't worry, guys. I think you'll enjoy what I have planned for them.

Read and review, if you like. Ladies and gentlemen, until next time.


	2. Target Panic

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation, and the other cameos are owned by Marvel. Ironically enough, I could **also**_ _fill a book with how many cameos I've done so far._

* * *

_**Chapter 2 – Target Panic** _

The doors to the police station burst open, and the same bespectacled "rookie" from yesterday rushed in, her thermos almost flying out of her hands.

"What's the point of having an alarm if you don't set it, Kate?" the woman mumbled to herself.

Three seconds later, she arrived at the cluster of desks that were assigned to the police force. A bunch of the officers were already there, including some of the rookies. There were all huddled around one of the desks, laughing at some silly video that was on a laptop. She ignored them as she emptied her arms of her belongings onto her own desk.

But she didn't even have a moment to rest before...

"Bishop!"

Kate ducked her head around to see the door to Chief Cruz's office, seeing his hand beckoning her toward him.

"My office! Now!"

"Ohhh!" one of the new officers whispered toward her. "Not even here two weeks and you're already on Chief's bad side. I think that's some sort of record."

WHAM!

The man looked down to see the business end of a pencil now sticking into the desk, right between his index and middle fingers.

"Ben."

He saw Kate bending down to look at him directly in the eye, her ponytail over her shoulder. "Say one more thing about me, and I'm going to stick this pencil so far up your schnoz that I'll be able to put my signature on your brain."

With that, she made her way to the Chief's door. The rookie glanced back down at the twitching pencil.

"I would be more worried about getting on _her_ bad side, Juwono."

"Quiet, you."

Kate left the crowd behind, turning the corner to see Chief Cruz sitting at his desk looking over some papers. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Have a seat, Bishop."

She set her body down in the chair while he was finishing up looking at whatever documents were in front of him. She took a second to try to spy the group through the glass window.

"Please tell me you didn't take a finger off of one of the new guys."

"No, I didn't, sir."

Chief Cruz still didn't look up at her.

"I mean, I _thought_ about it, but I held myself back."

He pinched the bridge of my nose as the paper floated to the desk. "Bishop, you want to tell me why you're late today?"

She looked down at her phone to note the time. "Sir...I'm actually not late today."

Cruz turned his head to see the old analog clock behind him. Very slowly, he pushed the minute hand up a couple of inches, putting it on the correct time. He went back to his notes while Bishop sat there for a little bit longer.

"Sir?"

He finally scribbled his signature down and pushed it to his Outgoing box, pointing with his pen to the other side. "Sorry, I had to make sure my daughter didn't sign up for anything nefarious, and that involved going through the _entirety_ of my Inbox. Anyway." Cruz swept his hand over his desk calendar and looked up at Bishop. "I wanted to tell you that you're going to get what you wanted, Bishop."

"Really?"

"Yes, Bishop. For real." He pointed to the current date on the calendar. "It's not until midday, but SFIT is having an event on campus with Wendy Wower, who's become somewhat of a celebrity ever since she got kidnapped by Liv Amara. She has a new book and presentation she's doing, and the dean has requested an additional officer to back up their security. They're not _expecting_ anything to happen, and normally I would send someone else, but half the newbies apparently went to Pizzazz Pizza last night and got food poisoning."

"What about Simmons? Seems like the kind of thing he'd like."

"Yeah, he would, but Simmons didn't come in either. That's even weirder, because he's been with the force for almost 40 years, and I can count the amount of times he's called out on one hand." Cruz sighed heavily. "At least he called in to me this morning. Sounded really hoarse, too. But in any case, I have to play babysitter here for the day, so if you want-"

"I do."

"...Bishop, you don't even know what I was-"

"Yes, I do. And I want it. I'll prove to you I can do it."

The two stared at each other for a long second, and Cruz laughed. "Kate, there's nothing to prove. You're going to go patrol campus for an hour, and then go on your own beat for the rest of your shift. If you're lucky, nothing will happen. Understand?"

She nodded.

"Good. You'll radio in every half hour to dispatch with your location. You haven't been here that long, so it wouldn't hurt for you to use today to get yourself more familiar with the city. If you have any questions, ask me now."

"I do have one."

Kate got up from her chair and cleaned off her glasses. "Can I...drive back to my apartment and grab a couple of things? I may have left them there on my way out the door."

Cruz shook his head as if scolding his daughter, but the response was positive. "Yes, Bishop. That's fine. But you need to be there at noon. Not 12:15. Not 12:05. _Noon._ Do you get my point?"

She put the glasses back over her eyes, the light from outside glaring off of them.

"Absolutely."

* * *

_Later that day..._

"So the person that you fought yesterday was wearing a literal coat of arms?"

"Yup."

"Are you sure Mr. Frederickson did not send this person to you as a joke?"

"Nope. I checked. He's _really_ mad he didn't think of it first."

"I am very glad that Mr. Frederickson has his priorities straight."

The dean of SFIT and her youngest student were heading back to her office, finished with the Wendy Wower event on campus. The proceedings had gone all according to plan, even though Wendy still wanted to have a makeshift volcano explode just for fun.

Guess that's what you get when you try to have an event for kids _and_ adults.

"Even the people in the back got soaked by the 'lava'. That one old guy was really mad."

"He is a major donor to the institute," Granville said, opening her office door. "He'll get over it."

The two walked in, Hiro setting his backpack down on the couch. He had gone to the event at Granville's invitation, partly to help with the set-up and partly to get a redo of the signature on Tadashi's thesis. She was even able to make a silly picture out of Trevor Trengrove's old name...and fix Hiro's name as well.

He also got a signed copy of _The Art of Intelligence_ , Wendy's new book. The cover was her in her normal silly attire, with just a loose necktie to try to make her seem professional. Hiro found it pretty amusing.

The first chapter wasn't that bad either, judging from his quick reading as she presented on the stage.

"If only you read your classes' textbooks with as much gusto as you did her book."

Hiro blushed as Granville returned to her desk and opened her laptop. "I will have to inform her publisher that her audience has been expanded quite a bit." She set her own copy down and pushed it over to Hiro. "May I ask you to place this on the wall for me, please?"

He took the book and turned to the bookshelf.

And paused.

"It's alphabetical, Mr. Hamada."

He stared up at the tallest shelf.

"By author's last name."

Sighing internally, he bent down to push the book in with the rest of the W's. He stepped back to admire his minimal work.

"Mr. Hamada, I think that you would find a lot of very interesting pieces of literature on this wall." He felt her presence behind him as she followed his gaze. "The classics, the up-and-coming, even a little bit of fantasy."

"Are all of these added by you?"

"Oh, heavens no. These have been gifted by many students, professors, and deans of the past. A lot have even contributed with their own pieces of work. Such as..."

She pulled a book out from the left side and handed it to Hiro. He looked down at the cover. It was a man with a bowler hat on and a very impressive mustache, glaring menacingly over the large bolded words: **Brawn Over Brains: Why Science Cannot Eclipse The Majesty of Sports**.

"T. Dugan?"

"Timothy," Granville corrected, tapping the cover. "He's more of a...practical person than a scientific one. He was formerly the Dean of Athletics here until just shortly after I came on. He told everyone that he was retiring to focus on his health, but I believe that he was very hurt by his former best friend's actions."

She had another book from the shelf in her hands, and even Hiro could figure it out now; he was staring at the face of Robert Callaghan, sitting impressively for the camera.

"You haven't gotten rid of it yet?"

"I don't feel the need." Granville took both of the books and started placing them back. "While Robert's actions are inexcusable, it does not eliminate all of the groundbreaking work he did on robotics. It is the same for Lenore Shimamoto; being the cause of the Great Catastrophe has done nothing to lower her standing in San Fransokyo's history."

"It should," Hiro mumbled. "Callaghan, not Shimamoto."

She patted his shoulder. "Mr. Hamada, people's lives are filled of twists and turns. Stepping into the light, and hiding in the darkness. Do enough good, and it can even eclipse whatever horrid events that can happen later in life." She sadly wandered the shelves with her eyes. "I leave it as a reminder, Mr. Hamada, that even bad people can do good things. If I find something better, I may replace it. But not now."

Hiro slumped his shoulders, his mood going down.

"Perhaps some alternate reading would be helpful for you?"

He saw that she has yet another book in her hand, and this one was much thicker than the others. He took it out of her grasp and almost had it slam into the ground.

"Man, this is heavy."

"Yes, Reed certainly did like to hear himself talk." She turned to walk back to her desk. "And that translated into his scripture as well."

Hiro looked at the cover. The list of honorifics and titles in his name far eclipsed the title length, the white lettering popping on the dark blue background. "This guy has a Ph.D, MD, ScD, _and_ a D.P.S.?"

"Yes, but he _only_ had a GPA of 4.9 when he got his D.P.S. degree, so he doesn't like putting that on a lot of things. I cannot imagine why; he has a nickname for all of his degrees if I recall."

She dramatically waved her fingers around.

"His 'Fantastic Four'."

"Whoa." Hiro carefully opened the cover, noting all of the giant words in the introduction. "This guy must be really smart."

"He is. Reed Richards is one of the smartest people ever to grace the hallways of SFIT and SF State."

"Do you know him?"

Granville began typing something out on her computer. "Only a bit. I met him in my first year of student teaching. His head was always in either a book or a test tube, and sometimes both. Reed never did have much of a social life; he was focused far too much on his studies. But most of the brilliant minds are like that."

"Like me. Or Karmi."

"Well, I would hesitate to lump the two of you together with him. You two still have a long way to go in terms of his accomplishments...and with each other."

Hiro's cheeks started getting hot. He turned around to her, ready to ask her a-

"I still do not know, Mr. Hamada."

Or not.

"You will be happy to know that I _did_ speak with her rather recently. It was right after the two of you spent the day in Torii Gate Park."

"How do you know about that?"

Granville looked up at him, smiling.

"Because she told me about it."

"...Oh."

"Do not worry, Mr. Hamada; Karmi kept all of the more salacious details to herself. She told me she was still working with her parents to come up with a solution for her future education. However, now that I'm thinking about it, this conversation was not as recent as I remember. Probably a few weeks now."

"Yeah," Hiro said sadly. "It was probably the last time I talked to her, too."

Granville seemed like she was going to add on to her statement, but there came a couple of knocks from the office door.

"Strange. I wasn't expecting anyone else today." Granville motioned over to it. "Can you let them in, please?"

Hiro grabbed the handle and pulled it open. On the opposite side was a police officer. It was the same officer from the event.

"Hello, Officer..."

"Bishop, ma'am." She stepped inside and looked around. She had a ponytail tied back with a purple band, and her giant sunglasses were obscuring her eyes.

"Ahh, yes. You were assigned to us for the demonstration today. Were you lucky enough to get a signed copy of Ms. Wower's book as well?"

"That's...not really my wheelhouse, ma'am."

Something seemed off about her. Maybe it was not being able to see her eyes. Or maybe just her tone.

"Is there something that I can help you with, Officer Bishop?"

"Actually, there is. Do you know about the incident that happened at the beachfront yesterday?"

"I do. A young woman with additional appendages running around with knives? I'm sure it will fall somewhere in the middle of the weirdest sightings to happen in San Fransokyo."

She pushed her glasses on her head, and Hiro saw her eyes for the first time. They were blue, piercing...

And staring right at him.

"I was wondering if I could ask Mr. Hamada a couple of questions about it."

Granville gave the smallest of glances at Hiro before returning to the officer. "Is he in trouble?"

She hadn't blinked yet. This was getting creepier by the second.

"Of course not." She plucked her glasses off of her head and put them in her pocket. "But I believe that he would have information relevant to the investigation going on."

"An investigation?" Frowning, Granville closed her laptop. "I wasn't aware that the police was investigating it any further."

"Not officially. But there's just some details that need to be pounded out. Cross the t's, dot the i's. That sort of thing."

"I see. Well, I assure you that Mr. Hamada would be more than happy to assist in any way he could. Isn't that right, Mr. Hamada?"

Hiro didn't need the look that the dean was giving him. He was already starting to smell something fishy. No doubt she had too. Putting on his best smile, he turned to the officer. "Of course, Professor."

"Excellent." She pointed off to the couch behind them. "You may have your conversation over there."

"I was actually going to take him over to the Administrative Building to-"

"I think not, Officer Bishop." The calmness was still in her voice, but Granville had added a tiny bit of annoyance to it. "As unofficial as this may be, Hiro Hamada is still a minor and does not have any sort of legal representation with him. I have seen my fair share of questionings, young lady. You both will remain _here_ so that I can act as his unofficial counsel. Is that understood?"

The officer narrowed her eyes at Granville. Hiro could tell she really didn't like being told what to do. But, after a moment, she relented.

"Fine."

Hiro went over his backpack and sat down, trying not to act nervous. She took the cushion next to him and pulled out a small notepad. She ran her pen over the top to make sure it worked, and then looked back up at him.

"Your name, for the record?"

"Hiro Hamada."

She quickly jotted it down. "Where were you yesterday, at around noon?"

"I was at the beachfront. With my aunt."

"She says that the two of you got separated for a small amount of time."

"She...wha?" He slipped his hand underneath his leg to stop it from twitching. "When did you talk to my aunt?"

"I'm asking the questions here, not you, kiddo."

"Ahem."

Granville cleared her throat, but didn't say anything. Taking it as the warning that it was, the officer took a deep breath in before continuing. "Your aunt made a statement to the police when you were...away."

"We must have gone down different alleys to escape. There were a lot of people running away from that crazy girl with the swords, and so were we."

"Hm." She scratched a few more words out on the pad. "So where did you run off to for that time you were away from your aunt?"

"I just told you. I was hiding."

She lowered her pen, and she was back to glaring at him. Now they were _really_ disturbing.

"You had a criminal record, kiddo."

"I'm aware of that," he responded.

"For botfighting."

"And I was arrested both times and released."

The pad and pen were long discarded at this point.

"You are aware that engaging in vigilantism can result in significant jail time, right? Especially if said person has been engaging in it for almost a year?"

Hiro was trying very hard not to blink.

"There was evidence that was picked up at the scene. And fingerprints on it were run in the system. One of the prints...came back to you."

His eyes started to water.

"Trouble always seems to find you, kiddo. And you can understand from my point of view, it's a little concerning. For a fourteen-year-old genius, you sure seem to be engaging in a lot unsavory activities."

She leaned forward, her glare even harder.

"So is vigilantism one of those as well?"

"That is _enough_."

Hiro had never been more glad to hear Granville's angry voice, and it wasn't even directed at him. She got up from her chair and made it over to the couch in record time. "Officer Bishop, I allowed you to interview Mr. Hamada under the pretense that you were doing an investigation. I did not realize that said investigation included my student."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, I'm trying to get to the bottom-"

"To the bottom of what?"

The officer stood up. She was only a few inches higher than Hiro, which meant that Granville towered over her as well. But she wasn't backing down. "He knows something about what happened, ma'am. I'm merely trying to find out what it is."

"Well, unless you plan on charging Mr. Hamada of something, I'm afraid this conversation is over." She pointed over to the door. "I thank you for your services today, but you may leave now."

The two ladies stared at each other for the longest five seconds of Hiro's life. He wasn't sure whether to get up and leave himself. Finally, the officer pulled her glasses out and put them back over her eyes.

"Thank you for your cooperation, ma'am."

She turned and walked out the door, shutting it with a little more gusto than was necessary. Granville sighed deeply and smoothed out her dress shirt. "Forgive me, Mr. Hamada. I do not particularly care for people who have little respect for authority figures."

Hiro finally blinked. His eyes had been drying out for how long they had been open. "I'm sorry, Professor. I-"

"This is nowhere near your fault, Mr. Hamada. It was a mistake to let you talk to her. I knew something was off since the beginning. But it does appear that you have someone who is looking very carefully at what you do. You need to be more mindful going forward."

He rubbed his temple, a headache coming on. "I thought we got past all of this with Chief Cruz. Do you think that she's trying to do something for him?"

"I am not sure." Granville came over and sat down next to Hiro. "He made a very public and widely-aired statement apologizing for his actions against you and the others after Trina was defeated. I find it hard to believe that he would rescind that so fast."

His head was swimming again. How could he be so stupid? Normally, he was so careful when it came to putting on his armor, but in the rush to stop Coat of Arms, he must've messed up the order of operations. "She had to have gotten my fingerprint from my helmet."

"Inadmissible. There are probably several people's fingerprints on your attire, not just yours."

That was true, and it make him feel a little better. But now he had to think about what to do next. Warn the others? No, they hadn't shown up to help him. They had been busy at the cafe. They were safe...for now.

But he didn't relish the idea of the police being after him again, even if it was just this one officer. It had been bad enough when Megan was trying to find-

"Hold on."

"Mr. Hamada?"

He got up and grabbed his backpack. "I have to go take care of something."

"I hope it involves you covering your tracks."

Hiro looked back at her, his hand on the door.

"It does, actually."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Hiro slowed to a stop in front of the house. He would have been there sooner, but he had to pull over twice to calm his nerves. The stare of that woman was still sitting in his mind. He kept telling himself that she couldn't have known.

There was only one person involved with the police that had been able to figure it out.

And he had to go see her.

Putting his kickstand down, Hiro walked up to the door, knocking on it twice. Normal school was also out for the summer, so there was no reason she wouldn't be home. Unless she was doing another story for the paper again…

The door opened up, and the girl had a wide grin on her face as she came into view. Her short black hair was kept tidy by a green hairclip. She had the same green striped shirt on, the same black jacket.

"Hiro! Hi!"

And also the very loud voice.

"I wasn't expecting you. How've you been?"

"Good, good." No use worrying her now; he'd have to put up a front for at least a little while. "Can I come in?"

"Oh, sure!" Megan got out of the way to let Hiro inside. "Just make sure you keep your shoes at the door; Dad'll have a conniption if he finds a mess after all of the cleaning I did."

"That's how you kept busy?" Hiro asked, kicking off his shoes. "Cleaning?"

"Not much else to do when you're grounded for weeks on end."

Megan Cruz was the newest member of the Big Hero 6 family, but that wasn't by choice; she had been able to deduce Hiro's identity through a careful mix of research, interviews, and hounding him until he finally gave up the ghost. After bringing her on a patrol, almost getting caught by Chief Cruz, and wondering if she was going to out them for the school newspaper, she had decided to side with them instead of her dad, who had branded them as vigilantes.

It wasn't until Megan got kidnapped by Trina that Cruz was finally able to see the consequences of his actions, and in return they had revealed their identities to him as well.

Not long after things had settled down, Hiro had gotten word from Megan herself that her dad had grounded her for getting herself in danger. That was during the others' graduation, so he didn't have much time to wonder about it.

Karmi had shown up too…

Hiro shook his head to get the cobwebs out. "Are you still grounded?"

"Nope. Last day was yesterday." Megan started up the stairs, the tuft of hair bobbing on her head. "But Dad doesn't want me leaving the house just yet. Still thinks that robot girls are going to snatch me again."

Hiro followed her, noting the pictures on the wall. All of them were Megan and her dad in various stages on her life. Once was her riding a bike, the next was her swinging on a playground, and yet another was her with a backpack on.

"He's just worried about you. You _did_ get kidnapped, after all."

"Yeah, but you guys saved me. That apparently counts for nothing, though."

They reached her room, and as Hiro walked in, he noticed the glaring omission from before: the conspiracy board that had almost taken up her entire wall. It was gone now, replaced by several other random photos of her around the city.

"So…" Megan flopped onto her bed and swung her legs back and forth. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but you sort of stopped coming to my house ever since I found out about you guys. Everything good?"

Hiro scratched the back of his head. He didn't really want to go into all of the details with her, but he still needed something from her. "Where's all of the stuff you had about us?" he asked, pointing to the wall. "The articles and charts and stuff?"

"I have it stored away," she responded as she tilted her head to the closet. "Some of the pictures I kept for safekeeping, but the rest I downloaded onto a thumb drive. Why?"

"...I need it. All of it."

Megan raised her eyebrow at him. "You're being secretive again."

"I'm not."

"Then why do you need it?"

"I just do, OK?"

That came out a little harsh, and Megan noticed. She got up off of the bed and took the step toward him. "Hiro, you can talk to me. I can help you."

"You can help me by giving me the drive. I need to get it to the base so it's secure."

Megan was looking even more confused, but she went over to her desk, sat down in her desk chair, and started rummaging through the drawers. Hiro stood awkwardly in the middle of her room, waiting for her to finish.

Until she noticed her look up and tuck some hair behind her ear.

"Hiro...we're friends, right?"

"Huh?" He turned his head to look at her. "Yeah. Of course we are."

Megan looked back down for a split second.

"And...you're friends with Karmi?"

Oh boy.

"Y-yeah. We...we are."

She turned around to look at him, her hand on the chair. "Why did you stutter when you said that?"

"I don't know. Why are you asking me all of this?"

It seemed like she was torturing herself on purpose. The shifty eyes, the nervous twitch of her feet, the slow reddening of her cheeks.

"Hiro, I have to tell you something. About...about Karmi."

"OK."

This was the complete opposite direction of where he wanted this conversation to go. He had hoped for a quick in-and-out with the drive, but fate had different plans. Hiro watched as Megan drum her fingers on the desk and finally start speaking again.

"When you...ran away..."

Hiro gulped.

"I was so worried about you. We all were. Dad was actually home with me when he heard on the radio that you had gone missing. I think it took him five seconds for him to get out of here and to the precinct to gather everyone." She nodded her head toward the floor. "Dad leaves a police radio in the kitchen so that he can keep tabs on everything, and I used that to listen in while they were searching for you."

"Yeah, he said something like that when he found me."

"I'm not really suppose to be using it, but whatever. Anyway, the others were texting me saying they were going to go out and help, but I couldn't go. I was still grounded, and I didn't really want to risk it, so I grabbed my laptop and went downstairs next to the radio. A long time went by with no updates…"

Megan breathed in, and then let it out slowly.

"And then Karmi messaged me."

Hiro's breath caught in his throat.

"She reached out to me on the fanfiction website. I guess she had tried to get a hold of you, and you weren't answering, and she was…"

She brought her hand up to her mouth.

"Hiro, the things that she said to me...I was so scared for her. I thought she was going to do something to...herself."

Aunt Cass had vaguely mentioned that Karmi had texted her with very problematic messages, but she didn't let him see them. Not that he _wanted_ to, but he got the impression they were bad.

Just as bad, he thought, as these ones.

"It also doesn't help that…"

She cut herself off again, but this time she shot away from her chair, looking Hiro in the eye.

"Hiro, Karmi is going through some things right now. And I wasn't suppose to know about them. When I was doing research on you guys, I was trying to get all the information that I could. Their enemies, their friends, their habits. So I had wanted to interview her since I know she had interacted with Big Hero 6 a few times. Plus, you guys saved her when she got kidnapped at Sycorax."

He knew where she was going from this. Now that he was thinking about it, the hesitancy to talk about it was clear.

"Megan, it's OK. I already know about the lawsuit. I saw your messages."

Her eyes widened as she got interrupted. "Wait. How do you know-"

The look of slow realization went over her face. Now in the know, Megan smacked her forehead. "Oh my God. _You're_ the person who was monitoring her fanfiction profile. She mentioned that someone was in our exchange, but I didn't think it was _you_."

"Trust me, I didn't exactly volunteer for it. It was just kind of thrust upon me."

"You haven't logged in since her and I talked, have you?"

Hiro shook his head. "No. I haven't."

"Good." Megan sat down in her chair. "You...don't want to read what she sent me. I'm pretty sure she privatized them, anyway. You couldn't read them if you wanted to."

"Look, I don't mean any offense, but what does this have to do with anything?"

There it was again. Her cheeks went red, and she wasn't looking at him once more, now focusing on the carpet.

"Do you like her?"

Great. This was just the situation he imagined himself in at the beginning of the day. The great Hiro Hamada, alone. In a girl's room. Talking about _another_ girl.

" _That must be why Megan likes you so much."  
_

Chief Cruz's words from the woods came floating back to him, and he audibly gasped. A year ago, he would have been oblivious to this sort of thing. But he had way too much experience in this to ignore it now.

"Are you...jealous?"

Megan pursed her lips.

"Because your dad said something about you when we were stuck in Muirahara Woods. He seemed to have the impression that...you liked me. He didn't say anything else, even when I pressed him about it, but-"

Hiro stopped himself this time, a few moments in time running through his brain.

"Is that why your dad is so on edge when it comes to us being in the same room together? Because you told him about me?"

Megan lifted her head toward the window to look out of it, perhaps wondering if her father was going to drive up in his patrol car at that instant. Content he wasn't going to appear, she started talking again.

"Hiro, look. You have to understand something about my dad." Her eyes closed partly, perhaps remembering something from her past. "Ever since my mom passed away, he's been so overprotective of me. I completely understand, but I still get mad at him from time to time. I don't want to be 'Daddy's Little Girl' anymore. But it's hard because he's the only person I have left. And then we moved here and I met you and..."

She wandered off to her bed and sat down on it, nervously swinging her feet. Hiro very carefully sat down next to her, waiting for Megan to start speaking again. She clasped her hands together and twirled her thumbs, not looking at him.

"Hiro, what my dad said was true. I _do_ like you. I...think he got a couple of things lost in translation, though." She ran her hand over her bedsheet. "We got off to a rough start, but since then, I feel like I've gotten to know you better. You're a cool guy, Hiro. You have so many great things about you. You're smart and you're brave and you're compassionate. But..."

She looked very quickly away from him and back again.

"I hope it's obvious that I don't want to be _that_ girl."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about _her_ , Hiro."

He stared at her. He wanted to interrupt her. To set her straight. But his voice wasn't having any of it.

"Those messages she sent me. Like...dude. They were insane. I don't think I've ever seen anyone that emotional before. I wasn't lying to you when I said that I legit was worried for her."

Now his voice was there again. "Megan, there's not-"

"Hiro, stop."

Her hand was up, palm facing him, interrupting his tangent. "I know I don't know you _that_ well, at least not as long as everyone else. And I've never met Karmi face to face. But you cannot sit there and tell me to my face that there is not something going on between you two."

Well, she had him there. But the last person that Hiro wanted to talk to about Karmi was her. So, he did what any guy would do in a similar situation.

Drastically try to change the subject.

"Megan, I need the drive."

She cocked her eyebrow at him, her smile returning. "Really? You're just not going to talk about it?"

"Megan." He got up from the bed to steel his nerves. "The drive."

She chuckled as she got up as well. "OK. We'll do it your way." She opened her bottom desk drawer and, after a second, pulled out a black thumb drive, pressing it into Hiro's open palm. "There."

Hiro gave her a knowing look. "I need the back-up, too."

"I don't have a back-up."

He tilted his head slightly.

"Ugh. Fine." She opened her middle drawer and plucked an identical thumb drive out, setting it right next to the other one. "That's the last one, I swear."

Hiro wiggled his fingers at her.

"Heh."

Megan's top drawer was now open, and the last drive he needed was now in his hand.

"Maybe you know me better than I know you."

He bunched all of them together and put them in his backpack. "I'll drop them off at the base. Maybe encrypt them a little bit just to be safe."

"You know, you still haven't told me why you need them."

Now Hiro was feeling bad. He showed up out of the blue to her house to confiscate the entirety of her Big Hero 6 project without any sort of explanation. She was his friend; maybe she deserved more than just breadcrumbs.

But that was her specialty: following breadcrumbs. Even though they were the same age, her deductive skills were second to none. She'd find out eventually. Perhaps it would be better coming from him.

"I had an officer visit me at campus in Granville's office. She started asking a bunch of questions about what happened at the beachfront yesterday."

"You mean with that spider-woman?"

"The multi-armed girl, yes. But the stuff that she was asking...it sounds like she's looking into me and Big Hero 6 again."

"Hiro," Megan said, worried. "You don't think that the police are still after you, right? Dad-"

"I don't know yet. I'm still piecing things together. I can't rule anything out, and unfortunately that also means your dad." Hiro slung his backpack over his shoulder. "So I would really appreciate it if you didn't tell him about this. Not yet."

"Of course."

"Thanks. I gotta go get to the base and back home before Aunt Cass starts wondering where I am." He turned and waved to her as he walked out. "I'll try to keep you updated."

Hiro took the large staircase down to the foyer and grabbed his shoes. Maybe he could have Baymax meet him somewhere discreet so that the trip would be a little quicker. He reached for his phone to call him.

"Hiro!"

Megan was now next to him, her hair a little more disheveled. She had something in her hand. Something thin and small.

"Here."

She held it out for him, and Hiro saw what it was: a small photo of Karmi. It looked like it was pulled from the official SFIT student body website. It must have been from a version of her board he hadn't seen before.

"I think you should have this," Megan said. "You'd probably have more use for it than I would."

Hiro gently took it from her.

"I'm sorry that I looked into her the way I did. Classic Megan, I guess." She nervously chuckled. "Always going overboard with her research. Not caring about what other people would react to it."

"You apologized to her. And if that's good enough for her, that's good enough for me." Hiro slid the photo into his wallet. "I know you meant well."

"Yeah."

He opened the door and started heading out, but he was stopped by a sudden tugging of his wrist. He looked down to see Megan's hand around it.

"Hiro."

Her voice was much softer this time.

"I-I'm really glad you're alright."

He didn't move. Mostly because of the wrist, but also for the fact that his brain had temporarily stopped.

"When I called Dad and he said they found you, I was so excited. I practically jumped out of my chair. Being stuck here and not being able to do anything was...rough. I wanted to go out and help search for you."

She was staring at him, her eyes unreadable.

"I know it might not mean much coming from me, because you have other people you know better, but...if you ever need to talk, I'm here for you."

Her cheeks were now getting darker by the second.

"I mean, we _all_ are. Not just me. I didn't mean to-"

"I know what you mean."

If Hiro had looked down, he would have seen Megan had now grasped his hand. But he wasn't blessed with the best peripheral vision.

That eye doctor appointment was looking better and better now.

Because he also didn't see coming what happened next.

One second, Megan was staring at the hedges next to the door. The next, she was leaning toward his face.

The _next_ , her lips were pressed against his cheek.

She immediately pulled back with a look on her face that read equal parts horror and embarrassment. If Hiro could look at his own face, it would have probably matched her.

" _GottagoI'lltalktoyoulaterBye!"_ Megan pulled back and slammed the door in his face, leaving Hiro alone on the front steps. He put his hand up to his face, put off by the temperature it was at now.

* * *

As Hiro pulled away from the house, Megan was peeking around the corner of the window. It felt like her ears were blowing steam into the curtain. Finally, and mercifully, the boy was out of her vision.

And then she threw herself onto her bed, pounding her fist into the mattress.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she yelled into the pillow.

Megan turned her head toward her desk, wishing that her brain would calm down.

"You were doing so good, girl. You were having a completely normal conversation with him. It was going just fine You were even being supportive! And then you have to go and do...that! Why? Why would you... _Ugh!"_

She set her face down into her pillow and screamed as loud as she could. A minute later, she pulled up and wiped her eyes free of the perspiration.

"Why do you keep doing this? You fall for the first person you get introduced to in a new city. You have _got_ to get under control."

She sat up and pressed the back of her hand to her forehead. Great. Now in addition to it being on fire, she had a headache.

"Megan Stacia Cruz, one of these days you're going to get yourself hurt. And you're not going to be able to fix it."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** And now we're properly introduced to what I alluded to in the description of this story: "whatever the heck is going on with Megan".

Hiro. Hiro is what's going on with Megan.

I want to assure everyone who thinks that I've gone off the deep end that this is not a Hiro/Megan story. I will be touching upon it in a few different ways, including what happened above, but you'll have to wait and see what happens at the end between them. Megan can be an interesting character, and that's the aim of what this story is going to do. I want her to have a little bit of character development that I don't think she got in the show. It might come in Season 3, but I can't wait that long.

You also saw a little more bit of Kate and her attitude. People like her don't like being told what to do, and think themselves superior to everyone else. Headstrong, confrontational, and pompous.

Those traits have _never_ led to anything good. And the rest of the team (which has been mostly absent so far) is going to find that out the hard way in the next chapter...especially Honey Lemon.

Oh, and having R. Richards and T. Dugan as cameos don't really count as mine, since they've been referenced in supplemental material for the movie before.

...Oh, and Megan's middle name? We're playing the long game with that one. :P

Read and review, if you like. Until next time, everyone.


	3. Field Tip

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation, and not the multitude of rich people that Fred has to hang around with from time to time._

* * *

_**Chapter 3 – Field Tip** _

The woman in the alley brought the string back.

Aimed carefully.

And let go.

THWACK!

The point hit right where she was aiming at.

In the center of the target.

"Glad to know that I don't have any leftover rust."

She stepped up to her makeshift piece of work and pulled on the shaft. The arrow released, the picture falling to the ground. She picked it up and stared at it for a few seconds.

"I'm coming for you."

She put the arrow back into her quiver and turned away.

"Time to get started."

* * *

"I've been waiting a long time for this."

They were already looking down onto the city from atop the tallest building.

"You'll have what's coming to you soon, kiddo."

They pulled the hood over their head and spied the spot they would jump down to.

"And you thought you could get away from me."

* * *

"Hiro, were you actually planning on telling us about what happened at school?"

"I was...until someone ran in here and starting yelling at me."

"You weren't saying anything about it! Don't you think it's kind of important?"

He looked behind him to see Go Go staring. "Not in the middle of trying to get this done, no."

The secret base at the site of Fred's family candy factory was a great place to keep things hidden. Their identities, their spare armor, the copious amount of chairs that were being made for certain alternate members...

But it wasn't good for keeping actual secrets. Hence the upcoming interrogation.

"Hiro, Granville told me about what happened. I have to deliver a package to campus for the next event, and she said something about a cop showing up to her office and interrogating you about what happened with you and Aunt Cass."

"And Freddie said he was very mad that he didn't get to fight a new villain," Honey Lemon said. Upon seeing Hiro's non-amused face, she quickly followed up. "Oh yeah, and he's glad you're OK, too!"

" _Recognized, BH6-06. Wasabi."_

The swordsman came through the open door, wiping down his hands. "Good call on the hidden hand sanitizer, Hiro. But that still won't make up for Go Go being worried."

"I wasn't _worried,"_ Go Go insisted. "Hiro can take care of himself when it comes to the police. I would be more worried if _you_ found yourself being interrogated. You'd fold faster than an origami crane."

"I would not. I'll let you know that I did great earlier today. I didn't give up anything on you."

The other three humans gave each other concerned looks. "Wasabi, is there something you want to tell us?"

Hiro knew that Wasabi had said something wrong, because he quickly tried to make a beeline for the door. Before he could hit the pad, Go Go's disc lodged right next to his hand.

"Wasabi." The Korean sauntered over and grabbed his shirt. "Spill."

His head started shaking uncontrollably, and his bottom lip began to quiver. After a little more staring from Go Go, he dropped to his knees. "I didn't say anything, I swear!"

"Wasabi, what did you do?"

* * *

_A few hours earlier..._

" _He's a good kid! He's been through so much. Don't arrest him!"_

The man behind the counter of the sushi restaurant was crying, the cascade of tears splashing down onto the counter. The officer took a small step back, clearly uncomfortable by the emotional Wasabi.

"I...just asked if you knew Hiro Hamada, sir. Nothing else."

* * *

"Oh good. You didn't rat Hiro out. You just embarrassed yourself in front of everyone in your place of employment. I'll take that trade."

Wasabi glared at her, now sitting in his chair. Honey Lemon pushed the box of tissues closer to him and patted his shoulder. "It's OK, Wasabi. You did good."

" _Have a lollipop."  
_

"Yay!" He grabbed the candy from Baymax and stuck it in his mouth.

"...Unbelievable."

He shifted the lollipop to the side of his mouth and turned to Hiro, who hadn't moved from the main console. "But yeah, in all seriousness, I told that woman that you're a good kid and wouldn't be mixed up in anything bad. I don't know if she believed me, but she left eventually."

"Wasabi, were _you_ planning on telling us about this?"

"Yes! But then a bunch of customers came in, and we got busy..."

Go Go raised an eyebrow at him, waiting for the follow-up.

"And then Aspen called me."

"Of course she did." She threw her hands up in the air. "Boys. Always thinking with their-"

"Didn't you get a call from Robbie today, too? You were texting me about it on the way over here."

"That was _different!_ " Go Go started walking toward Hiro. "We were setting up a time to meet this week. He wants me to drive down and help pick out a new wheelchair for Gabe."

"Awww. That's adorable!"

Hiro didn't need any of this right now. All of the talk about significant others was only bringing up you-know-who in his head.

Not to mention what happened with him and Megan earlier...

"What _are_ you working on?"

There was no use trying to hide it from her. Hiro tapped the top of the connected thumb drive. "I'm downloading all of the data that Megan had on us. And then I'm encrypting it into the system so that no one else can get to it."

"Hiro, isn't most of what she gathered public information? If not all of it?"

"Yeah, but I don't want this officer or anyone else to have their hands on it. I would just feel better if it was in our possession and not Megan's."

He saw Go Go out of the corner of his eye. "You're worried about her."

"Why wouldn't I be?" He took out the last thumb drive and put it with the other two in his pocket. "If this officer _did_ find some way to link me to Big Hero 6, it's only a matter of time before she finds her way to her."

He turned to walk toward the table, but there was a slightly taller girl in his way.

"What are you _not_ telling us?"

"Hm?"

Go Go bent down with beady eyes to stare at him. "Did you tell Megan about her?"

Hiro blinked.

"Of course you did. How else would you have been able to convince her to give you the drives?" Go Go folded her arms. "Typical. You tell her but not us."

"You don't trust her."

"I trust _you_ , Hiro."

"That wasn't an answer."

Go Go sighed out loud. "Hiro, I do trust her, especially with Cruz off of our backs. But now Megan is another person that knows our identities, and she doesn't even have powers or a giant robot to defend herself. Trina's in jail, and if we're lucky, Noodle Burger Boy is off in space somewhere. But we have a lot of villains who are still at large. Who knows what they're up to?"

"Yeah," Hiro mumbled. "Don't remind me."

His mind went back to Megan looking at him with concern. To the grabbing of his wrist. To the kissing of his cheek...

"Why are you turning red?"

He realized too late that blushing wasn't one of those things that could be kept to his thoughts, and he quickly turned away. Go Go continued to stare at him, but didn't proceed further. Instead, she went back to her chair and flipped it, sitting in it the opposite way. "So, are we going on patrol tonight or not?"

"I actually can't."

"Let me guess, Wasabi. You have plans?"

"I do, actually." He took the empty lollipop out of his mouth, putting it and the tissue into a waste bin that popped up out of the ground. "Aspen and I are having a video date tonight. We're watching more of that show she loves. She never got to watch the rest of it because...reasons."

Go Go opened her mouth to probably say something dirty again, but thought better of it. "OK, fine. I guess it's just us, then."

"I...actually can't do patrol tonight, either."

"Really? Why not?"

Baymax cut in this time. _"Hiro and Aunt Cass are engaging in a night of game show entertainment, which will be filled with a large amount of unhealthy sweets and foods. I will be there to make sure he does not ingest his daily amounts of saturated fats and sugars."  
_

"She didn't ground you again, did she?"

"No, Honey Lemon, she didn't." Hiro said. "I still feel a little guilty about everything that's happened, and I want to spend some time with her tonight."

The Latina smiled warmly at him. "Well, I guess we can't get mad at you for that. But patrol's going to be weird with just two of us."

"It will at least give you an opportunity to test out some of the things I added to your armors."

The two girls stood there, confused.

"What? You don't think I just spent the entire afternoon on these, did you?" Hiro patted his pocket. "I also did _this_."

Hiro pressed two buttons on the console, and the containers to both Honey Lemon's and Go Go's Ultra Armors were now open. "Go Go, remember when you had to call in your maglev discs during your car chase with those people trying to kidnap Aspen?"

"Yeah. It was annoying," she scoffed.

"Now you don't have to do that any longer." The boy genius tapped the side of one of the discs, and the rings on the side turned dark yellow, almost gold. "I've integrated the maglev tech into all of your normal wheels. I'm still working on doing it for your hover disc, but everything else is good to go."

"Sweet."

"Honey Lemon, there's a whole slew of new combinations and mixtures that I threw together. They're all on your dashboard." Hiro held up her Chem-Purse, pressing on one of the buttons on the top. Instantly, the screen changed over to a new layout. "You can now preset any of your standard chem balls you use. And the screen is digital, too. Made of plexiglass and very hard to break."

Honey Lemon squealed as she took the purse in her hands, admiring the handiwork. "Awww! And you even put a butterfly as the background! How cute!"

Hiro smiled at them, but suddenly realized the time. "I hate to cut and run, but I have to get back to my house. Test everything out and let me know how it works tomorrow. Gotta go!"

 _"Have fun,"_ Baymax waved as the boy dragged him off through the door.

"Yeah, I should be going, too." Wasabi got up as well. "Patrol's in good hands with you two. See you tomorrow."

"Say hi to Aspen for us!" Honey Lemon yelled.

"And remember," Go Go followed up. "You can't make out with her through a screen!"

Wasabi scowled at her, but the door whooshed shut in his face, cutting him off.

The two roommates stood side-by-side, looking up at their armors. Go Go turned her head to look up at the Latina. "I think it's time to woman up."

She held up her fist, and her teammate's came and hit it right back.

"And I have just the place to go, too."

* * *

"This...wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

Go Go had been expecting something a little more exciting as their first duo patrol. Speeding around rooftops. Hopping around downtown. Maybe even stopping a bank robber or two.

Not sit on the roof of the San Fransokyo Conference Center and look down at all of the rich people sipping wine and talking about rich people things and whatnot.

"Shh, he's coming up."

Go Go wheeled down the side of the air conditioning unit and deactivated her maglev capabilities, stopping right next to her. "Who is?"

She merely pointed down, and she now saw what Honey Lemon was talking about. There was a familiar person standing off to the side, nervously adjusting his tie. He looked very out of place, with his long hair and beanie hat. He was talking to his mom near the refreshment table.

"Fred. You came out here to see Fred."

"Didn't you read the sign?" Honey Lemon said. "This is the event that he gets introduced as the official head of the Frederickson family. He's been talking about it for the past few weeks."

"I didn't know that."

"That's because you don't pay attention to him, Go Go. He's been so nervous about it that he couldn't focus on patrols. That's why he hasn't been around as much."

Honey Lemon quickly tapped out a message on her phone, and Go Go saw Fred pull his own out of his pocket. His eyes read through the words and looked up at the skylight. She waved down to him, which he returned with excitement. Go Go also waved at him, albeit a little less enthusiastically. The moment was interrupted by Mrs. Frederickson, who half-dragged Fred off to the side of the podium.

"Ever since his dad passed, he's been dreading today."

Go Go frowned and looked up at her. Her eyes were still focused on Fred, who was now tapping on the microphone and beginning to talk to the crowd.

"He knew it was coming eventually, but he always let his dad take care of these sorts of things. But with him...gone...he's had to step up for his family. I hope he can get through tonight."

Honey Lemon sensed her roommate's eyes on the back of her head, and she turned her head to see just that. "What?"

"Nothing." Go Go saw Fred throw his arm out, the unheard joke landing with the crowd. "I just always forget that you've known him longer than all of us. Like, you knew him before school, right?"

"He used to volunteer at one of the soup kitchens at the same time I did. No one had any idea that he was rich...no one other than me. I guess he thought of me as a kindred spirit during those three days we were serving the homeless, because I was the only one he told."

She didn't need a sixth sense or a psychoanalysis to know what was going on here.

"It's because he likes you."

Honey Lemon recoiled from her. "Oh no. It's not like that."

"Aina."

She raised her eyebrow.

"Yes, this is a serious conversation because we're first naming now." Go Go pointed down into the building. "I see the way you're looking at him. The only reason I'm mad is because it took me this long to figure it out."

"Leiko..."

Now the shoe was on the other foot.

"You're looking too far into things. Fred and I..." She glanced at the boy behind the podium. "We're just friends. I'm not a part of his world. At least that one."

"But you could be."

"From what I've heard, you already are."

Go Go sighed angrily. "Fred told you about the money I won from the race, didn't he?"

"He did. Does that mean I don't have to pay rent anymore?"

"No."

"Aww."

The two stood there for a second, surveying the crowd. Then, Go Go wheeled back away from the skylight. "Well, I would love to keep watching this, but I'm bored out of my gourd. I'm going to run a lap around downtown and then call it a night. You coming?"

"No. I'm going to stay here for a little bit longer. Give Fred some support."

"Have it your way, then. I'll see you back at the apartment. Don't stay out too late, OK?"

 _"G_ _racias...Mamá."_

Go Go chuckled as she went to the edge of the roof. "Trust me, if I was anything like _my_ mom, you'd already be grounded. Hanging out on rooftops isn't a very ladylike activity."

She leapt off, leaving Honey Lemon by herself. She conjured up a chem-ball cushion and sat down, watching Fred continue to speak to the crowd.

* * *

_Later that night..._

Honey Lemon's heels generated her bouncy chemicals, allowing her to jump to the top of the Noodle Burger. The conference had wrapped up, and despite wanting to see Fred and congratulate him, showing up in costume was probably not the best way to go about it. She'd have to wait for another time.

Go Go's talk with her was still lingering with her. She had never actually sat down and thought about it before. She _did_ know him better than everyone else, even Go Go. Fred had fit right in with all of the rest of the volunteers for his first shift, and the two made great conversation during their few hours there.

It had come as a shock when Fred confided in her that he was not in the same social class as her. It had come as an even _bigger_ shock when he had led them to his house after Yokai chased them around the city in Wasabi's car. "Loaded" was the word that Go Go had used. It seemed like an insignificant adjective.

But Fred never saw it that way. He was just a kid trying to live his life. He didn't let the money get in the way of the simple things, like going with Hiro to the comic store, or laughing out loud in the movie theater (and getting a popcorn bucket thrown at him by Go Go).

Simple. That was probably the best way to describe him. Most people were puzzles. Riddles. Things to figure out.

Fred was not. He was pure. He was kind. He was a friend.

But the world was not simple. Being a superhero was not. How Fred was able to keep his attitude high while wrestling with all of his duties...she wasn't sure.

He'd have to tell her his secret one day.

Honey Lemon stopped on the edge of the higher building, marveling at the horizon. Yes, it really was a simpler time a year ago. But now her days were filled with adventure, action, and fighting the good fight.

And school.

And friends.

...OK, a lot of things.

It was almost like someone waved a magic wand and made everything more exciting...

"Oh! I haven't even tested this out yet."

Honey Lemon slid her finger over the screen, and her periodic table was replaced by an entirely new interface. Some of the elements were still there, but others were replaced with symbols that she didn't recognize. The background no longer had a butterfly on it, but instead there was a stylized heart, two curves rotating in towards the center and a small crown sitting on top.

"Wow. Hiro's really outdone himself this time. I wonder what I can make with all of this."

A noise from over her shoulder caused her to stop what she was doing. Strange, she didn't hear any birds or anything. What could it be?

"Took forever for me to find you."

That didn't sound like a friendly voice. Honey Lemon's fingers drifted down to her purse.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Her index finger stopped right above the icon she was hoping for. She hadn't gotten enough time to memorize the layout, but hopefully it was enough.

"You're a hard person to track down. Where were you all night? Staring at-"

In a flash, Honey Lemon threw the ball the instant it had been produced. But it didn't even get a few feet away before another object hit it in the air.

The resulting cloud engulfed the entire rooftop, and she took the opportunity to dive toward the edge of the roof. Past her would have been scared to even be near the edge of a building. Current her, however, had the tools to make it a breeze.

She stomped her feet, and another chem-ball grew out of her heel, jettisoning her out of reach of the mysterious person.

Or so she thought.

Another object whizzed by her ear, and it lodged itself into the brick wall she was jumping at. She had half a second to realize what it was.

It was an arrow.

With a timer on it.

That read 00:02.

" _Dios mio…"_

BOOM!

It exploded, sending chunks of building everywhere. Another billow of smoke came up and mixed with the smokescreen she had made, creating a thick layer of obstruction around her.

The wind picked up and took all of the clouds with it. When it left, Honey Lemon was up on her feet, her purse now in her Cannon Mode. It was aimed right at the other end of the roof...which was currently occupied by someone else.

It was a woman. Her pants and shirt were some sort of makeshift purple armor, leaving her stomach and her upper right arm exposed. Her chest and left arm were connected by her clothes, and a shorter gauntlet was on her right wrist. A long white scarf (not unlike the one that was made for Aspen) was bunched around her neck. Covering her eyes were a pair of purple and white sport sunglasses, the lenses wrapping a bit around her face. Upon her back was a cylindrical tube filled with arrows.

In her hands was a very simple shortbow made of wood.

On it was a singular arrow.

And it was pointed right at her.

"Who are you?" Honey Lemon shouted.

The arrow didn't move, and the intruder gripped the string even tighter.

"I don't have a name. I don't need one."

She could feel her eyes staring her down.

"All I need is to bring you in."

She didn't like the sound of that. The bunny on the end of the tube opened up, ready to fire.

"Did Trina send you? Or Liv Amara? Or some other villain?"

The mystery woman laughed. "No one sent me. I came by myself. Aren't you suppose to be the calm and rational one?"

"You know what they say about first impressions."

Honey Lemon's finger went to the trigger.

"You don't get a second chance at one."

The ball flew out and went screaming at the woman. She leaned out of the way and shot her arrow at the tube. Once it hit, the tip oozed out some sort of chemical, blocking the hole.

"...That's not good."

She had no time for any more talk, because the archer was now in her face, bringing down the flat end of the bow onto her head. She quickly brought up her wrists to block it, the bow thwacking off of her armor. Her leg came out and tried to make contact with the Latina's stomach, but she quickly rolled out the way. On the way back up, she threw the strap of her bag around her torso and yanked on it. In a flash, it slapped into her body, the bag now snug on her back. It was a safety mechanism that Hiro did for her so that it wouldn't hang lose during high-speed chasing, but she never had a chance to use it until now.

Another arrow came at her, but before she could react, this one also collapsed into a net, ensnaring Honey Lemon. She fell to the ground in a heap, struggling with her bounds.

"I thought this would be a little harder, to be honest."

The woman was back in front of her, another arrow slotted onto the string.

"But I guess it doesn't matter. My job is to bring you in. That's all that matters."

Honey Lemon tried to catch her breath. "I don't understand. You're acting like we're bad guys. We're the heroes."

"Yeah. You are."

The tip was almost at the edge of her visor.

"And that's the problem."

She was speaking in tongues, and after the fighting and the night she had, Honey Lemon wasn't in the mood for any of it. She pressed the button on her purse…

And the small, white orb shot directly down into the roof.

A sudden burst of wind rotated harshly around her, blowing the net and the archer back. It also caused her to start floating a tiny bit, the tips of her heels barely grazing the roof. After a second, it dissipated, and Honey Lemon returned to her standing position.

The archer, on the other hand, was not so lucky. She had slammed into a spare air conditioning unit, grimacing as she unhinged herself from it. The arrow from her bow was lying broken down at her feet.

"Didn't know you could do magic, kid."

She didn't hear a response, but she was too occupied to hear for one. The woman noticed four more orbs at her feet, all different colors. They were expanding at a rapid pace, almost like balloons.

"I'm full of surprises."

All at once, the orbs floated up and burst, causing the woman to shield her eyes from the knockback. One they all popped, she shook the cobwebs out of her head...only to find she was now alone on the roof.

"Great." She put a finger to the side of her glasses. The night vision activated and she swept her head around, trying to find her target. "The girl's more crafty than I give her credit for."

She looked down to see some footprints lighting up, the heat from them slowly dying away.

"But maybe not good enough."

* * *

_A few miles away..._

Honey Lemon had managed to get a good distance away from her attacker, but her mind was racing as well. This person was completely new, and didn't seem to know about any of the villains that she mentioned.

Who was she?

She had to catch her breath. She touched down on the warehouse, her legs shaking underneath her.

Honey Lemon had put on a brave voice and face when fighting that archer, but her train of thought was anything but. The last thing that they needed after all of this peace and quiet was more villains.

She took a look at her body. There were several new scuffs and scratches in her hands, and one of her knees were showing, a new hole in the fabric. She'd have to sew it back up at the apartment. It was only a couple miles out…

Another loud thud came from behind her, and Honey Lemon whirled around to see who it was.

Nothing.

Granted, she was in a part of town without a lot of built-in lighting, so she didn't _see_ anything. But something was definitely there. Or someone. She relaxed the strap of the bag, returning it to her normal position. She looked around in the darkness, her voice attempting to pierce through it.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but I _don't_ want to fight you. Whatever your problem is, we can help you. We can-"

The response came right at her in the form of an arrow, lodging straight into her arm and right underneath the armor piece on her shoulder.

"Ahh!"

The searing pain caused Honey Lemon to drop to her knees, her bag falling to the ground beside her. The shaft had shot clear through the protective mesh and right out the other side of her body. If it had hit about a hair higher, the tendon in her bicep would have been completely separated.

"I would worry more about yourself than me, little girl."

The archer hopped down from above, but her vision was beginning to swim so much that they were just a big black blob to her. What looked like a combat boot came down right next to her hand, inches away from her fingers. She looked to see the business end of another arrow...pointed right at her forehead.

"Let's see you try to run away from me now."

She must have been using a voice modulator, because it was deep and demonic. Why she wasn't using it before was anyone's guess, but far from her concern now. In a last-ditch effort, she grabbed one of the balls from her strap and raised it up.

But a strong hand came down and grabbed her wrist, stopping her progress.

"Nope. You're not using that. You can't stop me with your little science experiments."

Honey Lemon's breath became ragged. She had to get away. Her fingers tightened around the orb.

"Wonder what she'll think when I bring-"

Her grip activated the light inside the ball. It shined brightly around them, and also right into the person's face.

"Ah!"

They stumbled back, their eyes burning white. Angry, they launched another arrow blindly in the direction of the girl, but a soft _tink_ was the only sound that they heard.

Rubbing their eyes, they finally managed to get some vision back. They noticed the girl had been replaced by a protective bubble, a couple of cracks made in it by the arrow. They stepped up and punched the dent, causing the bubble to shatter and reveal…

No one.

A hole was in the roof, a few drops of acid still clinging to the melted metal. There was no sign of the girl. She was gone.

"Hm." They picked up the arrow off of the ground and slid it back into the quiver. "No matter. My work here is done. She'll get the hint."

* * *

_At Go Go's apartment…_

" _Man, I didn't know wheelchairs were so expensive."_

"Where are you looking at? The ones that I've seen online are only a few hundred dollars."

_"That's still a lot of money for someone like me."_

Go Go rolled her eyes. "Robbie, you have the funds, remember?"

_"I know. I just don't want to give Gabe the wrong impression."  
_

She let out a small laugh. "Yeah, I understand. He might want you to put rocket boosters or something crazy like that on it."

_"Oh, he's already asking for that. I told him no. The last thing I need is someone stealing his chair at school."_

"With rocket boosters, they won't be able to catch him."

Robbie sighed over the phone. _"You're not helping, Go Go."_

There was a knock on the door, and Go Go turned her head to look at it. "That's probably Honey Lemon back from her patrol. I gotta go. We still shooting for next Tuesday?"

" _Sounds good to me."_

"OK. Good night."

_"Night, Go Go."_

She hung up and pulled herself away from the computer desk. She was still in awe of the fact that she had a boyfriend now. And she had even called him that without thinking a few days ago.

Not even everyone's teasing was enough to bring down her spirits that day.

Go Go grabbed the handle and pulled the apartment door open. "Hey, Honey Lemon. How did-"

"Ugh…"

She took a second to actually look up at the new arrival. It _was_ Honey Lemon, but she was still in her armor. What was-

And then she saw the arrow in her arm.

And the blood dripping down onto the floor.

"Go...Go…"

"Holy-"

The Latina fell forward into her roommate's arms, a look of horror on her face. She was on the verge of passing out. Go Go had to do something fast.

"Stay with me, Honey Lemon."

She half-walked, half-dragged her over to the bathroom, which was thankfully still open from her shower. She gingerly put her down in the bathtub and put her bag onto the bathmat.

"I need...something to block...the blood…"

Go Go bent down and pressed a few buttons on her purse. She only knew a couple of the combinations, but she hoped the one she did was enough. The ball shot out and hit her palm, and she handed it off to Honey Lemon. She immediately slapped it onto her forearm, a bunch of paste climbing up and down her body.

Before she could finish processing everything, Go Go heard a knock on the apartment door. She really didn't want to deal with whoever it was, especially with her roommate semi-conscious, but she couldn't ignore it.

"Open up! This is the police."

Especially because of that.

"Go Go."

Her hand went around Go Go's wrist, and her attention went back to the girl in the bathtub.

"Be...careful."

She smiled at her and patted her hand. "Stay here. I'll be fine."

"Where am I...going to go?"

Ignoring her poor attempt at a joke, Go Go walked into the apartment proper. The person was still on the other side of the door knocking on it. How and why she was there was something she had to think about later. She had to work fast.

Thirty seconds later, she grabbed the doorknob. She took a deep breath...and opened it up.

On the other side was indeed a police officer, her ponytail and uniform neat and orderly. She pulled her oversized sunglasses and looked down at the Korean. "Good evening, ma'am. Someone called in a disturbance at this location. Is everything alright?"

"Um...yeah. Everything's fine. Did something happen?"

The officer didn't answer right away, only attempting to look around Go Go's body. She slightly moved to her left to block her view.

"You're aware that you have blood on your welcome mat, right?"

To her horror, she realized that a few stray droplets had indeed fallen to the ground. The arrow in her arm must have plugged most of it from falling out of her body; otherwise, there would have been a ton more.

"Oh, that?" She put on her best girly voice, the one that made her want to claw out eyes whenever she heard it. "Listen, my roommate is...kind of a drama queen. She was making something with her sewing machine (she pointed to it on the kitchen table) and hit her finger on the needle and she flipped out. She was halfway out the door before I managed to stop her. I _told_ her that we have bandages here, but she never listens."

The officer took turns glancing from the blood on the mat to Go Go's toothy grin and back again. The look of exasperation would have been hilarious in any other situation.

"Look, officer, I have everything under control. I put a nice big fluffy sticker on her finger and she's sleeping now. It's not that big of a deal. Plus..." She jutted her thumb out at the desktop, where a certain Latino was waving at them. "My boyfriend and I were getting ready to…call it a night, if you know what I-"

The woman held up her hand to stop her. "I know what you mean. You don't have to explain it." She took a step back and adjusted her hat. "You have a good evening, ma'am."

"You too, officer!"

Go Go shut the door before they could process anything else. Breathing a sigh of relief, her back went flat into the door. She wiped her brow, not realizing how much she had been sweating.

" _Go Go-"  
_

She swiped her hand over her throat, cutting Robbie off. She held up a finger and put all of her attention into focusing on the parking lot outside. Finally, after an agonizing minute, she heard the police cruiser pull out into the road.

"OK, we're good."

" _Did I miss a freaking memo or something?"_

"No, you didn't." Go Go leaned into the computer screen. "Thanks for playing along."

Robbie looked supremely confused, but let it go. Instead, he adjusted the collar of his t-shirt, lowering it a tiny bit. _"You know, now that we're here…"_

"No."

" _Why not?"  
_

"Because Honey Lemon's laying in the bathroom bleeding profusely from getting shot."

" _What!?"_

"I gotta go and help her. I promise I'll explain everything later." Go Go's finger went over the close button. "Thanks again."

Before he could respond, she closed the chat program. She grabbed her phone and started dialing. In the midst of her second phone call, she glanced over at the sewing machine, the needle now stained with a few drops of blood.

Her blood.

Go Go sighed as she shook her finger, a new cut on it. "The things I do for you, Honey Lemon…"

* * *

_A couple of frantic calls later..._

"I think that should be enough."

Go Go was standing in the center of her apartment, now flanked by Fred and Wasabi. Honey Lemon had been moved to her bed after being stripped of all of her armor, only leaving her mesh undersuit on. After taking care of her wound (and fainting a couple of times), Wasabi and Fred had cleaned up the mess as much as they could. Go Go hadn't done much, but her nerves wouldn't have allowed her to help anyway.

Wasabi put a damp washcloth over Honey Lemon's forehead, who was now fast asleep. "She's going to be OK. As long as she keeps those bandages on her arm for a few days, it should close up that hole in her. But she'll be out of it for the rest of the night."

"Thank you guys for coming," Go Go whispered. "I'm sorry I ruined your date with Aspen."

"Don't worry about it. I explained the situation to her. She understands."

Wasabi closed up his medical bag, which Go Go had taken careful stock of. "How do you have one of those if you can't even stand the sight of blood?"

"It was my dad's idea. Never know when you need to have it on hand. Glad I could make use of it."

She blinked twice, not responding.

"If she wakes up in pain, give her a couple more pain meds. If that's not enough, call me and I'll bring more."

"I have stuff here." She nodded to the bathroom cabinet. "But thanks."

Wasabi nodded and patted her arm. He walked over to the door and through it, closing it behind him.

"I can stay the night, if you want."

Go Go turned to the second person who had come over. Fred was still in his tuxedo, having been called right at the end of his dinner. A few stray drops of blood were on his white button-up shirt, no doubt from his attempt at helping. Wasabi had done most of the legwork, but even being there was good enough for her.

"Did I mess up your coronation?"

Fred chuckled. "No, you didn't. It was totally boring, anyway. A bunch of old geezers drinking wine and talking about yachts. I'd rather be here."

He rubbed Honey Lemon's hand absentmindedly.

"Not in this situation, but-"

"I know what you mean, knucklehead."

He stepped back, and the two watched the Latina sleep for a little bit. It was hard to believe that earlier she had been lying in the bathtub, the drops of blood running down the side of wall…

"Go Go?"

She hadn't realized she was shaking. Fred slowly put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side.

"She's going to be fine, Go Go."

That didn't make her feel better at all.

"I shouldn't have left her. I should have stayed."

"There was no way you would have known. Don't beat yourself up over it."

It was too late. Her brain was already beating herself up over it. So much so that the next thing she did was completely out of character.

Go Go rotated her body, pressed her face into his chest...and hugged Fred.

Fred was just as surprised as anyone else, but his arms went around her neck, and the two stood there in the deafening silence.

She wasn't a hugger. Everyone knew that. But even _she_ had her limits. And it didn't hurt that Fred was a good hugger.

Not that she would _ever_ tell him that.

"Go Go, that officer you talked to tonight? The one that Hiro and Wasabi were describing? I'm pretty sure she was at the party earlier."

She picked up her head and set her chin on his chest.

"She wasn't the only police person there, but she was the only one who talked to me specifically. Asked about Hiro. Asked about Wasabi. Asked about you and HL. I didn't give her anything, though. Tried to play it off cool, but I don't know if she bought it. She left about halfway through. That was...about the time you two showed up."

"Fred. Do you think she knows?"

He slowly shook his head.

"I-I'm not sure. She didn't ask about anything specific. It was like she was trying to catch me in a lie. Luckily, Mom was there to distract us."

His hand gripped her shoulder a little tighter.

"I wish Dad would have been there. He's better at the secret identity thing than I am."

"You did fine, Fred."

"How do you know that?

Go Go stared into his shirt.

"Because you're a Frederickson. And you're your father's son."

He looked down at her for the first time, confused.

"That...means you're you, Fred."

"Ohhhh."

Letting out a small laugh, she lightly pushed herself off of Fred, but still kept her hands on him. "One thing at a time, Fred. We have to focus. We can't let some random policewoman get us distracted. Right now, there's a _real_ threat that we have to take care of…"

Go Go and Fred glanced over at the sleeping girl, the bandages on her arm still stained with her blood.

"And we have to stop them before they hurt anyone else."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I _did_ say that this story was going to be a little more serious.

Kate's costume is based off of her early armored-like one, not the one she currently has (the light purple one with the circular cutouts). I thought that would fit a bit more into the universe better. Plus, everyone loves scarves.

Early on in the planning story, I was actually going to have Hiro be the one shot with the arrow. But I decided to switch him out with Honey Lemon because I think it would hit a little harder in the heartstrings to have her get hurt to the extent she did.

Plus, Hiro's got other problems he's going to have to deal with later.

In totally unrelated news, did you know that Honey Lemon didn't really get an upgrade when she got visited by a certain key-wielding hero in an incredibly popular video game? We just had to fix that, didn't we?

Glad to know she's got Aero and Balloon down. Wonder if anything else will crop up.

Also, I love writing the subtleties of the other relationships. Even though this isn't really a romance story, we have little bits of pairings cropping up. Some are ones that I've been writing for a while. Some are going to hint at things in the future.

But now, we have to refocus, and so does the team. I wonder when they're going to find out that the officer they're trying to dodge and the archer who shot Honey Lemon are the same person.

They...are the same person, right?

Let's see if we can get that squared away next chapter.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time, everyone.


	4. Archer's Paradox

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation. Our special guest for today hails from Top Cow Productions._

* * *

_**Chapter 4 – Archer's Paradox** _

It was _way_ too early in the morning for this sort of thing.

But all normal methods of operation went out the window when he went downstairs to eat breakfast.

There was a noticeable absence at the table. Both Honey Lemon and Go Go were not there. Hiro had immediately inquired about their whereabouts. And it took a bit (because of the increased visits over to the table from Aunt Cass), but Wasabi and Fred had clued them in on everything that had happened overnight.

And he was mad.

Not just because he took responsibility for Honey Lemon getting hurt (which Fred already said wasn't his fault, just like Go Go).

But now because he was getting thoughts in his head that weren't going away.

So drastic measures had to be taken.

He saw the detective walk into the building and stood still, hoping that his presence would be noticed immediately.

The man looked up from his paper.

And then looked down the hallway.

...Then stopped.

Did a double take.

And spoke up.

"Hiro, what are you doing here?"

"Detective Kato."

It was odd to be so cordial to the person that arrested you twice for illegal bot-fighting. Hiro knew he was a good man and that he was only doing his job. Still...kind of weird.

Kato looked back at the doors to the police building and then back at the boy genius. "A little early for you to be causing trouble, isn't it?"

"I'm not here because I got in trouble, sir. I need to speak with Chief Cruz. Have you seen him?"

"I think he's in a meeting right now. C'mon; let's go see."

Hiro and Kato started the long walk back to the offices. Hiro had never been back here before; the only times he'd been at the precinct was when he had been taken into custody.

Oh, and when he and Megan snuck into deactivate the Buddy Guardians.

 _That_ was an interesting conversation he had with the elder Cruz when everything had settled down.

"Tiny says hi, by the way."

"Huh? That giant guy who was in the cell with me when you brought me in to holding?"

"Both times, yeah." Kato took a sip of his thermos. "He wanted me to congratulate you for him on finishing your first year at SFIT. I think he misses you."

"That's weird."

"Yeah, he's a little odd. But he's a big softie. I think he's working at some security firm now. Maybe I won't have to arrest him again."

"What was he arrested for?" he asked as Kato pushed open the door to the offices.

"...Loitering."

"Really?"

"Expecting something a little more extravagant, Hiro?"

He nodded.

"So was I." He set his thermos down on an empty desk. "Not every arrest is as exciting as an underground bot-fighting ring, I can assure you."

The joke at Hiro's expense went over his head, not because he was trying to ignore it. It was because he was noticing that there were a lot of other empty desks around the staging area. "People taking vacation or something?"

Kato sighed and scratched his head. "Not sure. There must be some bug going around. Half the squad is either sick or out for some reason or another. I've never seen anything like it. Cruz has been pulling double duty, and a lot of the rookies are stepping up to fill in. Like Kate."

He motioned over to one of the far desks, and to his horror, Hiro saw the woman that had visited him at school. Even inside, she was still wearing those giant sunglasses that made her face look like a fly. Her hair was hanging over her shoulder as she stared down into a large pile of documents.

"Of course, she'd rather be out in the field, but some things take priority. Like paperwork."

How many people knew that she had interrogated him in Granville's office? Surely Cruz would, right? It wasn't his style to just send officers in secret around.

Maybe?

"Ah, there you are, Diego."

Hiro whirled around to see Chief Cruz just entering the room. He had a mug in one hand, a manila folder in the other, and an expression that looked like he had already been up for a few hours. He rubbed his eyes as he approached. "Morning, John. What brings you over here?"

Kato stepped to the side. "You have a visitor."

Cruz's eyebrow creaked up his forehead. "Hiro. What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you about something. It's important."

"Oh. OK. Here, let's go into my office." He walked over to his door and unlocked it. "Thanks, John."

The detective simply nodded and exited into the hallway. Cruz waved Hiro into the small office, and he took his place at the chair across from him. He had two trays of papers on his desk, and both of them were about the same height. The rest of his desk has various other things on it: his badge and hat on his left, a picture of him and Megan on the right, and a large amount of manila folders spread out in a fan in front of him.

"Sorry for the mess. I've had to play catch-up with all of these guys calling out. The force is down 20% over the past few days."

"Yeah, Detective Kato told me about it."

Cruz pulled his chair out, sitting down in it. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, Hiro, but I got a lot of work ahead of me today. People are dropping like flies and I may have to take a patrol or two today myself. I don't know what's going on, but I need to figure it out before-"

"Did you send someone after us?"

Hiro hadn't meant to blurt that out at the beginning. But a combination of anger, nerves, and recalling Fred's description of his friend's injury was forcing him to think a little differently.

"What are you talking about?"

He looked over his shoulder at the wall. There was a group of pictures set in frames, each one corresponding to a dangerous fugitive. Most of them were large, muscular men holding cards with their prisoner numbers on them. Six of them had the team's profiles on them, the pictures taken from Megan's conspiracy wall.

"I'm...in the middle of replacing those. I just haven't gotten around to it yet."

Hiro turned to look at him again. The whole saga with Chief Cruz and his fight to hunt the team down seemed like a such a long time ago. They had spent months trying to convince him that they were the good guys, but none of their words had any effect on him. In a way, he had to thank Trina; if it wasn't for her, they'd still be on the run.

His eyes went back down to the desk again. Some of the folders corresponded to incidents around the city. And they seemed rather recent, too...

"Hiro?"

The chief's hand came down over the corner of the page, and Hiro was brought back down to Earth. Cruz was staring at him again, waiting for him to explain himself. He steeled his nerves and spoke up.

"Honey Lemon got shot with an arrow last night."

Cruz recoiled from him.

"She was out on patrol, and ran into some villain with a bow. She had to escape and go back to her apartment to lose them."

"Is she OK?" he asked.

"She has a giant hole in her arm and has been at home in her bed while we all worry about her. How do you think she is?"

Hiro was walking a very thin line between informative and accusatory, a fact that wasn't lost on Chief Cruz. His eyes narrowed at the boy across from him, the question from before still lingering.

"Let me guess. You think I had something to do with it."

"...Did you?"

OK, _that_ one was a little more forceful than he was aiming for. But it did the trick; Cruz was now leaning back in his chair, put off by Hiro's brazenness. He folded his arms over his chest and opened his mouth.

"No."

Hiro stared back at him.

"Hiro, I know that you and I haven't seen eye to eye-"

"That's an understatement."

"Look." He pushed his chair in closer to the desk. "Hiro. I didn't agree with what you guys were doing. I admit that. I was wrong. And I made my amends with it. I apologized to you and to everyone in this city for my actions. The fact that you come here and accuse me of trying to get someone to hunt you guys down behind my back is a little insulting..."

His hand went back down to the folders.

"If not a little deserving."

He opened the first one.

"But Honey Lemon's not the only one who has had that happen to her."

"Really?"

Cruz nodded and tapped the desk. "I have five criminals over the past couple of days that have the same problem. They were confronted by what all of them described as 'some person with a bow'. They all got admitted to the hospital with arrows in their bodies. They'll be fine, but it's still concerning."

"We didn't hear about them," Hiro said.

"Neither did we. Every incident was over before it even began. And the worst part is that they weren't even doing anything illegal. No crimes in progress, no burglaries, nothing. The fact that someone is undercutting us _and_ you is something we don't need right now. Between this and the rookies..."

Something about the way he said that caused Hiro's mind to go back out into the office and the woman at the desk.

"I have another problem, too."

"Really?" Cruz asked. "Well, we're just having a field day, aren't we?"

"One of your officers is investigating me. I think she's trying to uncover us as Big Hero 6."

"Oh man. Who is it?"

Even with the seriousness of the situation, the thought of getting one of his officers in trouble made Hiro a little uneasy. Thankfully, irony decided to show up at the office door in the form of three knocks.

"What is it?" Chief Cruz said out loud.

The door opened, and the woman from before leaned her head in. She peeked over her sunglasses as she addressed the chief. "Sir, the rookie you assigned me to? Lester? He's not outside. Do you want me to wait for him or-"

"Later, Bishop."

Her eyes then went to Hiro, and for a moment, they locked together.

" _Bishop."_

And then the moment was gone, and she turned her head back toward her boss.

"I will be with you in three minutes. Wait in the lobby for me, OK?"

"Of course."

The door shut behind her, but Hiro's head didn't move. It took a loud cough from Chief Cruz to get him out of his funk.

"You were talking about one of the officers, Hiro."

He looked very quickly between the door and Cruz. He seemed to have gotten the hint, because his expression changed from confusion to understanding almost instantly.

"She came to Professor Granville's office after the book signing and asked me a bunch of questions. Wasabi's work. One of Fred's events. Honey Lemon and Go Go's apartment. All within the past few days. It's not a coincidence."

"Do you think she actually knows?"

Hiro shrugged, frustrated. "I'm not sure. Could she do anything if she did?"

"Yeah. She could arrest all of you, like I was trying to do. Does she have evidence?"

"She said she found my fingerprint at the fight between me and Coat of Arms."

Cruz pursed his lips, confused.

"Lisa Molinari."

"Oh, that girl? Her mom came in and dragged her away by her ear. Weird how people become criminals these days."

Hiro let out an aggravated sigh.

"Sorry." Cruz started getting up from his chair. "I can go talk to her if you want."

"No! That's not a good idea. If she _does_ know something, the last thing I need is for her to know you're in on it." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'll figure something out."

"She's a good cop, Hiro. She's had a rough past, so I understand where she's coming from. Her old precinct Neo York sent me a very large file that-"

He shut his mouth, and even Hiro knew that he said something that probably wasn't suppose to be aired out loud.

"Sir?"

"I should not have said that." He got up from his chair and pushed it under the desk. "Ignore that, Hiro."

"Chief, I think it would be good if I saw that file."

"No."

"But-"

Cruz was at the door now, but his attention was on him. "Hiro, I appreciate everything you have done for the city. But this is a matter involving me and her. I am not going to let you get into police business..."

* * *

" _And that's final_. That's what he said to me."

"Yes, I can imagine how incredibly frustrating it can be to ask for something and not being handed it on a silver platter."

Hiro glared at the woman on the opposite side of the desk.

"Was that too much?"

He was now back on campus talking to Professor Granville. After checking in with the rest of the team (minus Honey Lemon), they had decided to go on patrol to see if they could help catch the new villain in the act of hunting down criminals. That took care of one problem.

It did not, however, take care of the other one.

They had decided to stay low for the rest of the day, each retreating back to their own houses. Go Go had already been staying at her apartment, tending to a now awake (but still very much shaken) Honey Lemon, and Fred and Wasabi each left for their apartment and mansion respectively shortly after their conversation. Hiro, on the other hand, had other ideas.

So he went to school.

"I am not letting you break into police servers on school grounds and get this case file you are inquiring about."

So much for that decision.

"Professor, I think it would be important to know why this officer is like this."

"And why do you say that, Mr. Hamada?"

He had no good answer to that. "A gut feeling?"

Granville peered at him over her laptop. "You wish for me to let you preform an illegal activity based on your gut?"

"To be fair, I've done a lot of good things based off of my gut."

"You have." She smirked at him. "Pulling your cousin out an electrically-induced coma is one of those things. But I'm afraid even Ms. Parker, if she were here, would say that you are not acting accordingly."

Hiro threw himself into the couch. This was frustrating. How could he explain to her that getting that file would help with what he was trying to do? There had to be _some_ reason why Officer Bishop was looking into them. Did something happen in Neo York? He had never been to the city, but from what Peni had told him when she went on her patrols, it wasn't exactly the nicest place in the world.

Then again, neither was San Fransokyo.

"You said that the case file that Chief Cruz was given on Officer Bishop was from Neo York?"

"Yeah. Too bad I can't call Peni up and have her find it for me."

"Ahh, yes. Involve your cousin in your illegality. That will go well with Chief Cruz."

He pulled up his head from the couch cushion and noticed Granville typing away at her laptop. She was also poking at her phone; it looked like she was trying to find something on it.

"Mr. Hamada, can you come here for one moment?"

Hiro got up and went over to her desk.

"Over here." She motioned for him to walk around to her side, which he reluctantly did. He waited for a moment while she opened up the chat program on her computer.

"Professor?"

She finished with both her phone and laptop, finally looking up. "One of the things that you are in the middle of learning is that information is not always the be-all end-all when it comes to confrontation and hardship. Sometimes, Mr. Hamada, it is not what you know..."

She nodded to the screen and pressed the green call button on her phone.

"It is _who_ you know."

The phone rang a couple of times, and Hiro stood nervously next to his teacher. It should have stopped coming as a surprise ages ago that Granville was very connected with the world due to whatever she did between her previous stints at SFIT. What exactly she did while she was away was one of her biggest secrets, but he knew that it in part consisted of working for the government in the kind of department where everyone wore suits and nobody asked questions.

"Ahh, there she is."

A loud groan came over the speakers of the laptop, as well as the sound of a phone being brought up to an ear. _"This is Pezzini,"_ the woman mumbled.

"Hello, Sara."

Whoever was on the other end realized who was calling her, because the phone made a loud clanking noise down on a hard surface. A few colorful word choices were also pouring out of the laptop. Granville, smirking, turned her head toward Hiro.

"Repeat any of these poor word choices that my colleague has made in front of me and I ensure you that you will never graduate from this institute."

"Yes, Professor."

The screen popped up with the frame of a young woman trying desperately to straighten the long brown hair on her head. She patted the red blotch on her cheek (no doubt from the desk she was sleeping on) and winced.

"Impressive. You've managed to sleep on the hardest surface known to man...a police desk."

 _"It's more comfy when you stack all of your active cases' paperwork on it,"_ the woman said, her brown eyes lighting up. _"Hi, Grace."_

"Good afternoon, Detective."

" _Umm."_ She pointed over Granville's shoulder at Hiro. _"No offense, but who's that?"_

"This is Hiro Hamada, my student assistant. He is here because we have something that I believe that you can help us out on."

_"Give me one second."_

The phone got set down onto the desk, and the woman's full profile came into view. Her police badge was hanging on the pocket of her black jacket. She had a black shirt on underneath, contrasting the large amount of light coming in from the windows off-screen. It looked like she was in a fancy office, not unlike Chief Cruz's.

" _There, I think you're good."_

"Expecting someone else, Sara?"

_"Not_ _**you** _ _. I haven't heard from you since I made the move over here. I heard you're the big cheese over at SFIT now. How's that treating you?"_

"It has its benefits," Granville responded. "Have you gotten an upgrade as well?"

_"Don't get any ideas; I'm just filling in for my boss. Once he's back, it'll be back to the normal desk for me."_

The dean rolled her hand toward her laptop. "Mr. Hamada, this is Detective Sara Pezzini of the Neo York Police Department. We met each other when I briefly worked at the San Fransokyo Police Academy. Graduated at the top of her class."

_"Now without your help, Grace. I wouldn't have been able to do a lot of things without you."_

"Perhaps, but maybe we should save the self-gratification for another time." Granville moved a little in her seat. "I am in need of assistance on a matter involving your police and an officer."  
 _  
"And who's that?"_

"Officer Kate Bishop."

There was about a six second silence where the detective started to look at anywhere but the phone. Granville immediately picked up on this. "Sara, I need her case file. It is important. I would not be calling you and asking you to do this if it was not."

Her eyes not leaving the screen, Sara started typing quickly on her computer. _"For all of the technology in the world, we still have all of the physical case files and only recently been moving them online to servers. You better hope that hers is one of the ones that has. I'm not breaking into Records to get you anything."_

"Let us hope it does not come to that." Granville nodded to Hiro. "Work your magic, Sara."

Some new windows appeared next to the chat, a download progress bar slowly staring to fill up. _"I'm actually surprised you didn't hear about it. It was pretty big news around here. I wasn't around at the time, though. I was..."_

"Predisposed?"

She rubbed her wrist, and Hiro noted a bright silver bracelet on her wrist. The only identifying mark on it was a shining red jewel as big as the wrist herself. It dimmed and brightened at random intervals, almost like it was talking to him...

" _You could say that."_

Hiro felt like he was missing a very large amount of context, but he pushed that to the side. There were more pressing concerns at the moment, mostly because he now recognized her name from a story one of his new friends had told him.

"You're the women that Aspen was talking about. She told us about the trip she took with you and her friend a few months ago."

Her eyes went up to Hiro, and she smiled. _"Oh,_ _ **you're**_ _Hiro? Yeah, she talked about you and your gang of buddies a lot during the time she was here. Like...a_ _ **lot**_ _."_

"Yeah, she tends to not know when to stop."

_"I noticed. Good girl, though. Just don't ever get on a transatlantic trip with her; you'll never get to sleep."_

That was Aspen, definitely, but even the thought of his water-controlling team member wasn't enough to distract him from the current predicament. "Ma'am, did you know Officer Bishop?"

Sara rubbed her eyes in annoyance. _"I'm 26; I don't need to be called ma'am,"_ she muttered under her breath.

"Detective..."

 _"Right. We'll worry about pleasantries later."_ Sara glanced over the phone, perhaps to make sure no one was walking in, and then returned her attention to Hiro. _"I know about her. I never met her personally, but she's a little...messed-up."_

The progress bar dinged its completion.

" _And this is probably why."_

Granville opened the file, and a bunch of pages opened up on the screen. Hiro started reading...and his eyes went large.

" _Officer Bishop was a fresh recruit five years ago. One of the youngest in the academy here at 18. But she was good. Really good. She got placed in a precinct upstate and quickly went up the ranks. A large part of that was her partner. He was the best officer in that sector, maybe even the state. Those two sacked more criminals than anyone in their unit. They were pretty much inseparable."_

A picture opened up in the corner. It was a warehouse, a few police cars surrounding another one riddle with bullet holes.

" _A couple of years ago, the two were covering some gang-related activity near the Industrial District. It was a giant operation, only known in the police books under the alias of 'Bullseye'. Illegal arms and all that. They had arrested a few of the henchmen, but they had their eyes set on the head honcho. A tip had been called into the hotline saying that there was going to be a giant shipment of weapons coming in, and those two were the first ones to respond."_

"Let me guess," Granville said quietly. "It was a set-up."

" _Yeah. Because they went in by themselves, it was almost twenty minutes before backup could get there. And when they did..."_

Sara sighed. _"No idea how, but Kate was physically fine. But she was a ranting and raving lunatic when everything settled down. Accused the brass of abandoning her and her partner."_

"That doesn't make any sense."

_"No it doesn't, kid, but I don't think she cared in the moment. I heard that she was always kind of jaded with upper management ever since she joined the force, but it wasn't really a problem until then."_

"What about her partner?"

The detective paused.

"Sara, what happened to her partner?"

She looked down, and then poked at her screen. One last window opened on their end.

" _He got hurt bad. Like really bad. The file states that they almost had to amputate his leg because of all of the ammunition in it. He couldn't work any longer. He was given Retired status by the Commissioner's office."_

"This documentation states that he perished from his injuries."

 _"Hm?"_ Sara took another look at the screen. _"I...don't remember that. He was in bad shape, sure, but he was cracking jokes after all of the surgeries when some of the cops from my neck of the woods went to see him in the hospital. It must have been worse than I thought. That's rough. I never met him, but he seemed like a good guy. That would probably explain why she left."_ Her finger went down the height of the computer. _"She was given a few other partners...Jangles...McClain...Bull...but they all fizzled out. Instead of getting better, she got worse. Captain has no choice but to discharge her."_

Hiro and Granville looked at each other.

" _The last I had heard of her, she went back to her family in Manhattan. Didn't know that she made her way over to you guys. Let me guess...she's just as problematic over there?"_

"Something like that."

 _"Figures. People don't change that much, especially with something like that happening to them."_ Sara thought for a second, and then leaned into the screen. _"By the way, you didn't get_ _ **any**_ _of this from me. I could get in a lot of trouble poking around into personnel files."_

"Well, we appreciate your assistance, Detective. This certainly shed a lot of light on what's been happening around here."

_"Are you going to tell me why you need this info?"_

"Perhaps."

Sara let out a laugh. _"Of course. You have to be all cryptic, don't you?"_ She pointed over to Hiro. _"Don't let this woman push you around, Hiro. But stay on her good side. You'll learn a lot from her, just like I did."_

All of a sudden, Hiro heard a loud voice from somewhere behind the detective's phone. She looked up and held up a hand to whoever had entered the office. _"What it is, Underwood? I'm busy."_

A few muffled words later, and Sara pushed her lips together. "Fine. I'll be out in a second." One loud door close later, she looked back down. _"Sorry, Grace, but I gotta go. Apparently, Spider-Mech brought a bunch of bank robbers by the jail and they need more bodies to process them."_

Hiro's breath caught at the mention of his cousin's alias, and Granville spoke up to cover for him. "Ahh, so you don't pay attention to whatever drivel that paper is talking about nowadays?"

" _Listen."_ She got up from her chair and grabbed her phone. _"That robot's done more for this city in the past month than half the schmucks on the force. Even saved my sorry hide one time a week ago when I got caught in a shootout over in Central Park. People don't like him for some reason, but he sure makes my job a heck of a lot easier. As far as I'm concerned, that giant hunk of metal can stay as long as he wants, and anyone who says otherwise can kiss my-"_

"As I'm sure you have other things to attend to," Granville said, cutting her off, "we'll leave it there. Thank you again, Sara."

_"It was good to talk to you, Grace. Hey, maybe call more than once ever few years next time."_

"I will keep that in mind."

The call ended, and Hiro and Granville were left with the silence of the office again. Hiro stared at the computer screen, the picture of the severely damaged patrol car still up.

* * *

" _Well, that certainly explains a lot of things."_

It was evening now, and the entire team was now on patrol, even Honey Lemon (who has insisted on her attendance). Hiro had filled the team in on Bishop's history through the comms. The team had decided to split up into pairs to cover more ground: Hiro with Baymax, Honey Lemon with Go Go, and Fred with Wasabi. He was hoping that the mysterious archer would show up, but she hadn't shown her face yet for the two hours they had been going around the city.

It would have been really nice to just run a scan for the villain, but Honey Lemon had been too busy bleeding from her arm to give a good description of her face, and the glasses she had told him about seemed like they were made to obscure her face anyway.

Speaking of her arm, Hiro pushed his comm button. "How's the brace holding up, Honey Lemon?"

* * *

"Fine so far." The Latina pushed the fabric on her arm. Hiro had made it out of the same material of her purse, wrapping it taught around her body to stabilize it. "I still feel like a piece of swiss cheese, though."

_"You didn't have to come out, Honey Lemon."_

"For once, I agree with Fred.." Go Go wheeled to a stop at the rendezvous point, setting her roommate down onto the ground. "It was too much of a risk. We could have done this without you."

Fred hopped into view on the rooftop with a seasick Wasabi, who immediately ran to the edge of the roof to launch his lunch. "Yeah, it was pretty uneventful tonight...unless you count the amount of times Chop Chop had to relieve himself.

Wasabi bent his head back and wiped his mouth. "Dude, I don't know how you do it. Hopping is not my preferred method of transportation."

"Well, we _could_ have had Hiro build me a bike like Go Go, but _someone_ doesn't trust me driving it!"

"Replace the word someone with everyone, and you'd be right." The Korean opened up her line. "Hiro, we're all here. You coming?"

She didn't hear an answer, so she pressed her finger down harder. "Hiro?"

"Guys?"

They all looked up to where Fred's finger was pointing, and they saw Hiro and Baymax fast approaching...with something tied around Baymax's arm.

Or more appropriately...someone.

"It's her!" Honey Lemon yelled.

* * *

_Twelve seconds earlier..._

" _Hiro, we're all here. You coming?"_

The boy genius made a motion to respond, but was interrupted by his companion.

" _Hiro, there is a person approximately fifty meters below us."  
_

_Thwip!_

Before he could look, Hiro felt a snag in Baymax's flight pattern. Glancing back, he noticed a rope had wrapped itself around his robot's leg. And it was attached to an-

"Oh boy."

He bent his body down over Baymax, and there she was, just as Honey Lemon had described: a young woman with wildly unkempt black hair, a purple metal sleeve on her left arm, the same colored armor on her boy, and a long white scarf. The glasses did cover her face extremely well, but the color looked very familiar...

"Guys! I need some assistance!"

One of Go Go's discs answered the call; it cut clean through the rope, sending the archer off to places unknown. Free of his unwanted passenger, Baymax made the landing behind his teammates, the disc bouncing back to Go Go's wrist.

"Thanks for the assist."

He didn't get a response, only four stone-faced teammates. He looked over on the other side of the roof and saw the new arrival.

"Is this where the costume party is?"

"Oh good," Fred said. "She's got jokes. And not the good ones I would normally tell."

"Can it, knucklehead."

The woman was staring at them, another arrow already notched in her bow. She didn't move a muscle as she spoke up again.

"The gang's all here. Wonder if it will be an actual challenge unlike last night? The only reason you got away is because you gave me the slip. It won't happen this time."

"The slip?" Honey Lemon yelled, pointing at her arm. "You shot me with an arrow! Are you proud of yourself? Fighting heroes and injuring them?"

The bow still didn't move.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"She's just playing dumb." Wasabi activated his blades. "We'll let the police interrogate her once we stop her."

"The only ones playing dumb here is you kids."

It _still_ wasn't moving.

Hiro's mind figured it out.

"I'm tired of this." Go Go cocked her arm back. "You're going down, woman."

"Wait!"

It was too late; she had already launched it. It went straight toward the villain's head...

And right through it.

"Huh?"

"It's a hologram."

Having served its purpose, the projection fizzled out, leaving nothing but the arrow where it was coming from.

It was only then that Hiro noticed the light seeping through the cracks of the roof.

" _Move!"_

BOOM!

The roof exploded, launching the team into every direction. Baymax had grabbed Honey Lemon and Wasabi and rocketed upward using his boosters; Fred went flying off to the left, and Go Go to the right. Hiro knew that they both could withstand a fall using their suits, but he didn't want to risk a hobbled Honey Lemon and a terrified Wasabi.

"You guys OK?" he yelled.

The girly scream from Wasabi was enough to know that he was definitely not OK.

"I'm fine," Honey Lemon said. "But I'm worried about-"

Another arrow went right into Baymax's hand, deactivating it. Her body slipped from his grasp, sending her careening toward the ground.

"Honey Lemon!"

He had no chance to try to get her again; a dart came and hit Baymax in the chest, sending sparks over his body.

" _Hiro, my motor capabilities have been deactivated."_

"Unbelievable." Hiro pushed his hands into his back. "You'd think I would learn after the first time!"

* * *

Honey Lemon, in the meantime, was still spiraling downward. But she wasn't out of control; on the contrary, she was diving right toward the woman.

And she was angry.

She was also hurting, the brace on her arm doing nothing to deaden the pain, but the adrenaline was helping with that.

She threw one of her orbs at the archer, but she countered with a projectile of her own. Just like the previous night, the collision send a plume of smoke all over the rooftop.

Unlike before, it was Honey Lemon that was on the offensive.

She had two new orbs already in her hand from the secondary menu, a red one and a black one. She smashed them together and threw the resulting mess onto the ground.

"I can still see you."

The woman's head came forward and rammed into her helmet, sending Honey Lemon reeling back. She recovered quickly and noticed her adversary tap her glasses.

"Night vision. I have a few more tricks this time."

Honey Lemon pulled up another black orb, this one smaller than the previous.

"So do I."

She crushed it in her palm, letting the powder spill over her hands. The archer looked on with curiosity. "Oh yeah? You're going to make me sneeze into submission?"

The Latina threw her hand out, and the magnetic repulsion caused the goo on the floor to catch fire.

"...Oh."

Trails of fire dripped from the mass as Honey Lemon magnetically lifted it up into the air. She pushed her palm away, and it shot right at the woman, who dodged it with ease.

"Nice party trick, kiddo. Does it come with favors, too?"

Her lenses lit up with light behind her, and she turned around to see the fire looping around back at her. She wheeled around to see Honey Lemon still steering it, a Cheshire-like grin on her face.

"You _have_ to be kidding me."

She started hightailing it towards the edge of the roof, the fireball/flame orb/demonic entity hot on her heels. If she timed it right, she could make it to the other building and regain her focus-

WHAM!

Or she could get shoulder rammed by Go Go, who had climbed up the side of the building with her maglev wheels to reintroduce herself.

"That was for hurting my friend!"

She rolled backwards and back onto her feet, sending an arrow at Go Go. The Korean pulled off the giant disc from her back and used it as a shield, breaking it in the air.

"OK." She pulled out two more and cocked them. "Let's see you handle-"

A sudden whoosh of a plasma blade went right by her nose, and she bent back to let the other one slice into the railing. She twirled one of the arrows in her hand before slamming it into Wasabi's wrist armor, deactivating the blade.

"Now we're having some fun!"

"Don't you ever shut up!?"

Fred's tail careened into her back, sending her skidding across the roof.

"And that's coming from me, the plucky comic relief!"

The archer slowly stood herself up, dust and cuts on her skin. She was about to reach for another arrow before a metal disc shot down from the sky, lodging itself right in front of her. Instantly, her metal brace smacked into the roof, as well as her knees.

"Stay down."

Baymax hovered down, free from the EMP arrow. Hiro was on his back, and his gauntlet was aimed right at their adversary.

" _Your recommended course of action is to surrender,_ " Baymax said as he held up his fists.

"Yeah, what he said," Go Go panted.

Hiro saw the archer lift her head. It was almost impressive; he had increased the strength of the magnetic field to completely immobilize people with magnetic armor, even if they didn't have it on their entire body. She must have been at least a little physically strong.

"We don't normally get pushed this far, but you decided to turn my friend into a pincushion," Hiro said. "You started this."

"I didn't start this, kiddo..."

She clenched her other fist...the one that Hiro now saw had a detonator in it.

"But I _am_ going to finish it."

With all of her strength, she threw it towards the group and it landed right between them. As soon as it hit, a black cloud of smoke exploded around them, obscuring everyone's vision.

"Guys, we can't let her get away!" Hiro yelled. "Spread out and-"

A body slammed into him, and before he knew it, he was crashing through the skylight of the next building, out of reach of the rest of the team.

"Fred, a little help here?"

"Coming right up, Go Go!" Fred ejected his projectors and threw his arms out. "Let there be _light!_ "

Nothing happened.

"Really?"

Two separate crashes came at Go Go's feet, and she looked down to see the remnants of his armor sliding up to her, electricity pouring out from the deactivated pieces.

"Honey Lemon, you have something?"

"I do," she yelled, "But you have to give me a second. I- _Ah!_ "

The Korean turned around at her roommate's yell. "Honey Lemon!"

A dark mass suddenly appeared in front of her, and Go Go squared up against it. "Back for more? We beat you down before, and we'll do it again."

A disembodied voice came from it, the tone shaking Go Go to her core.

"Not this time, little girl."

* * *

_Meanwhile, about a hundred feet down..._

"Ugh."

Hiro had not landed very gracefully on the ground. The wooden boxes that he had fallen upon had splintered into many tiny pieces, some of which were lodged into his arm. He plucked a couple of them out and rolled over to his side. The archer wasn't around, but that didn't mean she wasn't there.

His ears were ringing, and not just from the concussion; someone was calling his comm. It was probably one of the team looking for him. He pressed his finger to his helmet. "Hello?"

_"When were you going to tell me you accused my dad of trying to hunt you again?"  
_

Hiro sighed loudly. "How did you get this line?"

" _You gave it to me, remember?"_

"No, I didn't."

A few seconds of silence.

" _OK, you_ _ **didn't**_ _, but I was able to program something similar. Am I coming in clear?"_

"Megan..." He ground his teeth together as she stood up. "I'm a little busy right now. Why are you calling me?"

" _Dad came home and told me that you went to him this morning with all of this crazy talk about someone shooting Honey Lemon with an arrow and you thought he was responsible! I thought you were just joking! You really think that-"_

Hiro growled, steadying himself on a spare box. "This is _really_ not a good time, Megan."

" _Are you mad at me?"  
_

He blinked once.

" _Is this about what happened at the house?"_

He had actually completely forgotten about that in the midst of patrol and Honey Lemon and the archer shooting pointy things at him, but now that he had a moment…

"Who are you talking to? Your girlfriend?"

The voice was coming from everywhere. Hiro couldn't pin it down, and that scared him. He had to focus.

"I'll talk to you later, OK? I have to go." He forcefully ended the call and started scanning in the dark warehouse.

"Always protecting the people you care about. How typical of you heroes."

"And you villains always find a way to make our lives difficult," Hiro spat back. "I saw what you did with my friend. We're taking you in."

"I told you; I don't know what you're talking about! The last time I saw her, she melted through the roof and vanished! Stubborn little girl, she is."

That didn't make any sense, but Hiro called out again. "You're lying."

"I'm not lying!"

WHAM!

Hiro got lifted off of his feet by something ramming into his back. His helmet scraped the floor as his body got entangled in ropes, no doubt shot by the woman. He skidded to a halt about ten feet away, fresh scratches on his face cover.

"But you are now. On the ground."

Her foot came into his view, and he felt himself being lifted up by her. She stared right into her glasses as her features morphed into a look of pure anger.

"You don't seem to understand. When Chief Cruz was hunting you down, he was doing the right thing. It's not your job to do the police's work. It's theirs. You're just going to get yourself hurt. Someone always does…"

The last bit trailed off into the night. Was that a hint of sadness he heard?

"I'm doing what Cruz can't. He wasn't good enough to finish the job. I'm here to do just that."

"So you're going to pick us off one by one from the shadows? Kill us?"

The archer's head recoiled back. "No. What is with your obsession with that? I'm not trying to kill you guys."

Her face leaned back in again.

"I'm trying to save you."

She threw Hiro down and started dragging him by his restraints. "I'm taking you to the police. I'm going to walk right up to Cruz, unmask you, and show the entire city just how much of a fraud you are."

Hiro struggled against his binds. "You're crazy."

"Yeah. I get that a lot. Tell me something I _don't_ know."

"Fine. You didn't take my shoes into account."

The woman looked back down at him. "Huh?"

Two plumes of smoke came out from underneath his boots, and Hiro flew up into the air, now out of reach of the villain. His hands were also helping with the stabilization. He hadn't had a chance to work on the tech since his chase against Sirque, but it seemed like everything was still fine.

Hiro grunted, and with a mighty tug, ripped the restraints away from his body. His undershirt shined purple with the tech from the Medi-Dex, the extra boost of strength just enough for him to get free.

"There's only one person who's going to jail tonight. And that's you."

Now incredulous, the archer's arm went back to her quiver, but it hit nothing but air.

"Looks like you're out of ammo."

She didn't seem particularly pleased, but she returned Hiro's smirk. "I'm never out of ammo, kid. I got a few tricks up my sleeve, too."

Hiro didn't care for her retort; instead, he flew right at her, fist outstretched, ready to connect it to her stupid face. The woman threw her arm out, and from a small recess in her metal cast, the tip of an arrow came out, attaching to her wrist. She brought it forward, aiming right for his helmet.

He was coming in too fast. He rotated his body in the air…and the tip scraped his visor.

But his fist didn't miss.

The two went careening into another pile of boxes, splinters flying everywhere. The dust cloud that came up enveloped the entire warehouse, obscuring the hero and villain from view.

After a few moments, it dissipated, and Hiro was finally able to see again. Now his entire body was hurting. Letting out a pained grunt, he tried to pull himself up into a sitting position, but his arm wasn't having it.

Strange. There wasn't just wood around them. There were little pieces of what seemed like glass around, too. Some of them were tinted light purple, and the others were darker.

And then he saw them.

The frames that the woman was wearing were a few inches away. One of the lenses was cracked, half of it still intact. But it wasn't shaped like the ones from before. They were perfectly round, just like-

Hiro gasped.

His head came up to see his adversary lying on her side. She was heavily panting, and a line of blood was falling from the corner of her lip. The same blue eyes that were interrogating him in Granville's office...were staring right at him again.

"Officer Bishop?"

She put a hand to her face. She must have realized she wasn't wearing her disguise, because she went looking around before they landed on her broken eye-wear. She clumsily stuck them over her eyes before opening her own mouth.

"Hiro Hamada."

Hiro noticed the sudden increase in airflow to his face. He tapped his helmet and felt the remnants of his face mask around his face. The pressure of being rubbed against the ground and the tip of the arrow must have been too much for it to take, shattering upon impact.

He didn't have time to think about the structural integrity of his armor; Bishop was now pulling herself to her feet, her left leg almost giving way. She started hobbling away, but not before Hiro called out to her.

"Wait!"

The officer turned back, holding her arm to her side. She stared at him for a long moment. Her face was unreadable, her glare indecipherable.

And then she turned again and walked out of sight, leaving Hiro alone in the warehouse.

* * *

_The next morning…_

Aunt Cass came out from the kitchen, balancing five plates on her arms. "Alright, who's ready for Victory Pancakes?"

She was greeted by no response, so she looked up to see what was the matter.

There were five very tired faces thrown back at her, the team in various levels of frustration. Hiro had done his best to clean up the scratches on his body, but the cream made his face look blotchy. The others weren't faring any better. Go Go had a bunch of bruising on her ribs. Wasabi had a black eye. Fred had escaped mostly unscathed, but he had a few burn marks on his arms from his flamethrower backfiring. His suit was almost in tatters; Hiro knew he had to make a new one quickly.

And Honey Lemon?

This one hadn't gone as deep as before, but another arrow had gone almost perfectly right into her wound from before. He wasn't sure how she was even walking around that day. Maybe it was because she was angry for getting hurt again. She winced as she patted down the extra bandages she had put on that morning.

"What happened to you guys?" Aunt Cass said with concern.

"Cut myself shaving."

"Rough workout."

"Couldn't sleep."

"Walked into a door."

"Twelve hour video game marathon."

The other four glared at Fred.

"What? High scores wait for no man."

"Well, I hope that pancakes will brighten your day," she replied, setting down a plate in front of each of them. "And I can't believe you're getting facial hair, Hiro! You're growing into a man before my eyes! You guys enjoy!"

As she walked away, Wasabi couldn't help but tease Hiro. "Shaving? Really? That's the best excuse you could come up with?"

"Shut up."

Go Go grabbed the half-empty bottle of syrup and peered into it. "I wonder how much of this I can ingest before it kills me…"

"Trust me, Go Go. You'll need more than that."

She sighed as she started pouring it over her pancakes.

"You going to save some of that for the rest of us?"

"No."

Honey Lemon gently plucked the bottle out of her hands with her good arm. "Now, Go Go, you need to share. Everybody needs some."

"For our Victory Pancakes? Tell me this." Go Go shifted in her chair. "Do they count as 'Victory' if we totally got our butts kicked?"

Everyone went silent.

"We didn't die. That's a victory."

"Thank you for reaching the bare minimum, nitwit."

Hiro didn't join into the conversation. His head was still reeling from last night. He had managed to pull himself together long enough to fly up out of the warehouse and back to where his friends were only to see them all injured and unconscious. It had taken almost two hours to get Baymax back online and everyone else to the base, and that was before he had to figure out a lie to tell Aunt Cass as to why he wasn't home. Like all the other times, she had been understanding and didn't ask questions when he finally arrived back at the house.

But this couldn't keep up. Something was going to break…

He reached for the bottle, a sharp pain coming from his stomach.

If it hadn't already.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Go Go asked, her stack of pancakes now properly obscured with syrup. "That officer knows who Hiro is. She could come in here at any point and arrest him. And we wouldn't be able to do anything about it."

"We have worse problems right now."

Honey Lemon cut into her stack absentmindedly. "Hiro, I'm trying to be optimistic here, but what could be worse than that?"

"...This."

Hiro pushed his phone onto the table, and the screen lit up with two different pictures. "I took a look at the arrows that she used against us last night. There were two different kinds used: fiberglass and composite."

"I didn't know you were an archer in your spare time, Hiro," Fred quipped.

"I'm not. I had Baymax look it up this morning." He rotated the image, and the two arrows started spinning around. "Fiberglass is relatively cheap, but the composite ones are more expensive. They have different trajectories, different travel paths. It would take an extremely talented athlete to handle both of them simultaneously and on the fly."

"I'm not understanding."

Hiro looked up at the Latina. "Don't you find it strange, Honey Lemon, that when you got attacked two nights ago, Bishop just stopped chasing you? And then she caught up to you, but you didn't see her?"

Honey Lemon blinked at him.

"And wasn't it weird last night, where she made this big show about fighting us, and then as soon as she tossed me into the warehouse, she goes all ninja and fights you in the shadows?"

Now everyone was paying attention.

"It's not the same method of operation. It's not the same fighting style. No one makes that much of an effort to distinguish themselves so drastically."

The two projections slowly came to a stop.

"And there would be only one explanation for that."

The short, thick arrow was pointing at Honey Lemon.

And the long, thin one was trained on Hiro.

"Guys...I think we're dealing with two different people."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I've mentioned before that I make an effort in trying to get my stories below a certain level of rating. For example, I don't consider blood (minor or otherwise) to be M-rated. I know that all of the websites I post to have different ways of categorizing their ratings, especially DevArt (which doesn't have lettered rating, just strict and moderate warnings). I always try to get everything to a T-level. The only reason I'm saying this is because I know that I'm probably hitting the line between a T and M rating. But we're all adults here, right?

Mostly.

But enough about that. Let's talk about how Honey Lemon, if she ever actually _got_ a chance to get magic, would be entirely and utterly overpowered. She got Balloon and Aero in the last chapter, and now she gets Homing Fira?

Can you tell the last KH game that I played all the way through was Chain of Memories? Sleights for the win.

So, as some of you have already guessed, there's more than meets the eye going on in the background. We have a little bit of background on Kate (thanks to Aspen's police friend in Neo York Ms. Sara Pezzini), and now things are coming to a head.

Just who is the mysterious second person that Hiro is talking about?

The hints are all there. You just have to target them.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time, everyone.


	5. Overdraw

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation. Coat of Arms is owned by Marvel. The other person...well, you'll find out._

* * *

_**Chapter 5 – Overdraw** _

"OK, you're going to have to explain all of this to me again. I was too busy having a sugar rush to pay attention."

"That's what you get for hogging all of the maple syrup, Go Go."

"Hey, give me _one_ day to pig out. You do it all the time."

"Kids!" Honey Lemon stood between the two and held her arms out. "Let Hiro speak."

Go Go crossed her arms and turned away from Fred. "Fine."

Hiro stood in front of his dry-erase board. The others, now done with their full on breakfast (and arguments, for the moment), were sitting around him in the garage. Baymax was standing next to him with a map of the city on his belly, preloaded with the information from the public crime database.

"Here's what we know so far." Hiro pointed up to the center of the board, where he had affixed Bishop's picture off of the police website. "Officer Bishop was a cadet over at the Neo York police academy. Went straight there as soon as she turned eighteen. Graduated in four months, ahead of everyone else in her class, and was put in one of Manhattan's precincts. For the next three years, she was one of the busiest officers in the entire area. She broke records in arrests and crime deterrence. She and her partner were pretty much the best duo they could ask for."

Wasabi raised his hand in the air. "Question."

"What?" Hiro said impatiently.

"How did you get all of this information?"

"One of Professor Granville's friends in Neo York gave us her file. Detective Pezzini."

"She's the one that took Aspen overseas to visit that woman in England, right?"

"Yeah. Weren't you paying attention when she was explaining all of this to you at Pierre's?"

"No, Go Go, because I was too busy watching our butts getting kicked at bowling!"

" _Anyway..."_ Hiro cut in before the conversation could get derailed any further. "According to her file, she and her partner ran into an ambush at a planned illegal firearms raid. It was at a bunch of abandoned factories near the river. Her partner got hurt pretty bad and retired, but eventually passed away due to the severity of his injuries. Bishop tried to keep working, but after several new partners and a confrontation with the chief, she was discharged."

Go Go was peering at a couple of the papers near her end. "And for someone as 'emotionally stable' as she is, I'm sure that rubbed her the wrong way."

"Yeah. But that's where her file ends. The time she left there to when she was admitted here was about two years. What has she been doing this entire time?"

Honey Lemon rubbed her still sore arm. "Probably honing her skills."

"Sounds about right. Use the time to practice and get a fresh start," Go Go agreed. "And I guess that Chief Cruz was giving her that. I'm looking through some of the things that happened after the raid. Therapy, counseling, even a demotion that was reversed at her insistence." She closed the manila folder in her lap. "That's a lot for any person to handle. I almost feel sorry for her..."

She glanced at her roommate's arm.

"Almost."

"But why even come back to police work at all?" Wasabi asked. "If I was in that situation, I wouldn't want to go near cops ever again."

"I think I might know." Fred poked at the map of Manhattan, right near the south end. His finger then went to the readout of the article next to it. "They arrested a ton of people as part of that Bullseye gang, but never found the head honcho. Whoever it was got away. Maybe she's trying to make up for that."

"By trying to finish the work that Chief Cruz started."

"But someone is running counter to that." Hiro motioned to the two arrows in front of him. One of them was recovered from his warehouse brawl from Bishop; the other was removed from Honey Lemon's arm. "Look at these. The arrows that Kate uses are thin and made of fiberglass. They're meant for quickness. Plus, most of them are custom fitted for all of those contraptions she has. The other ones are composite and thick. No fancy gimmicks. Just meant to cause as much pain as possible."

"You're still going on about this whole 'two separate people' theory, are you?"

_"It is not a theory."_

Baymax stepped forward, his belly now lighting up with a video feed. _"When we were separated, I was able to scan for Hiro in the other building. Two minutes later, I detected a second person inside with him, and that was Officer Bishop."_

"Yeah, that's when her glasses broke. She must have some sort of scan-jammer built into her frames. Look at this."

Hiro set down something on the table next to the arrows, and the rest of the team gathered closer. It was a shard of the lens from Bishop's glasses. It was shifting from a dark purple to a light, shinier shade at random intervals. "She can transition her sunglasses from the normal ones she uses to her combat ones. Probably has a button to switch between the two."

"So she tinkers. That's not comforting."

"Yeah. But the point is that not even she can be in two places at once. She was fighting me while you were dealing with the other one. Give the time stamps in Baymax's memory, it was literally impossible for her to be with me and you guys at the same time."

Go Go tossed the folder onto the table. "So, let me see if I have this straight. We're being hunted by _two_ people, one of which we don't even know anything about. The one that we _do_ know about could walk in here at any second and arrest Hiro, and the other is so deep into the shadows that we can't even begin to guess who they are. Meanwhile, there's a bunch of criminals around the city that are _also_ getting shot by one or both of them when they were just minding their own beeswax."

The group hung their heads, lost in their own thoughts. Hiro's eyes went up to the open garage door, half-expecting Bishop to walk around the corner with a pair of handcuffs.

"I don't think we have to worry about Hiro getting arrested yet."

"Huh?" Honey Lemon turned to Fred. "What do you mean, Freddie?"

"I remember in an issue of _The Glove_ when he got his identity found out by his arch nemesis The Compartment. But they were both fighting each other as their superpowered selves, so it wasn't like Compartment could walk into The Daily Beagle and expose him in front of all of his coworkers. He would have to admit that he was a villain, and keeping _his_ identity was important to the story. So it's the same case here. Officer Bishop _can't_ expose him or any of us because that would then expose her."

All of the other occupants of the garage stared at him.

"Did Fred just come up with a logical and sound argument?"

"Hey, I come up with good ideas sometimes!"

"Yeah... _sometimes._ " Go Go crossed her arms. "But you're right. She's in a pickle right now. So that leaves you safe, Hiro. For now."

"Oh my God!"

A sudden voice came from the open doorway, and Hiro looked up to see the second person he didn't want to see right now.

"Are you guys all right?"

Megan stepped into the garage and let her backpack drop to the floor. She looked up at Wasabi's wounded eye, Honey Lemon's bandaged arm, and then finally at Hiro's scratched face. "I heard about what happened last night. Dad had to send a few officers to find out what the commotion was all about, but you guys had left before they got there."

"We're all fine," Hiro said. "Just tired."

Her hand gingerly touched one of the longer cuts on his cheek, and he felt his face start getting hot. He _also_ felt Go Go giving him the stink-eye, so he quickly changed the subject. "What are you doing here, Megan?"

"I came to make sure you guys were alive. Duh."

"We are." Go Go set her hand on her side. "But my ribs and I are no longer speaking to each other."

Megan's eyes went to the board, quickly taking all of it in. "Wait...Officer Bishop? She's one of Dad's new rookies on the force. Is she behind all of this?"

"We're trying to figure that out now." Hiro brought her hand down. "But we need to regroup and get a plan together. I have to go to the base and get a little more protection built into your suits. I also need to make sure Wasabi's blasters weren't wrecked from that arrow."

"Wait, since when dose Wasabi have blasters? I thought he was the blade guy."

Hiro looked at Wasabi, who shrugged his shoulders. "Long story. We'll tell you about it later."

"Hmm." Megan looked over Hiro's shoulder to study the board some more. "You know, if it's information you need, I might be able to get some for you. Let me go to the police building and see what I can gather together..."

"No."

"Hiro, I can help you guys. If you know what you're dealing with-"

_"No."_

He had grabbed her wrist without meaning to, and the sudden grip caused her to take a step back. Hiro saw that everyone was staring at him, including Baymax.

" _Hiro, your heart rate has accelerated. Is something that Megan said making you uncomfortable?"_

The boy genius didn't answer. Instead, he started walking outside, Megan in tow.

"Hiro?"

He didn't turn around until they got around the corner. Once there, Megan wrenched her arm out of his grasp. "What is wrong with you?"

"Megan, I'm not letting you get involved. I-"

"You know we can still hear you two, right?"

Hiro growled and slapped the panel on the side of the wall. The garage door started lowering, and Fred took the opportunity to stick his head underneath. "You want to open a window in here? It might get a little hot, and-"

The door shut, leaving the two teens by themselves again. Hiro backed up a little bit more just in case. He didn't want Aunt Cass to see him through the window and come out and investigate.

"Hiro, let me go to the police station and do some digging. Maybe Dad can-"

"Megan, I said no."

Her face contorted into anger. "No offense, Hiro, but you're not my dad. You can't tell me what to do."

"Like you would even listen to your dad to begin with."

Hiro unclenched the fist in his sweatshirt pocket. OK, that came out wrong, but he tried to push past Megan's glare to continue on. "We don't even really know what we're dealing with here. Yes, Officer Bishop is a part of it, and we've already fought her a couple of times, but there's someone else behind her. And I don't want _either_ of them to know that you're involved with us."

Megan didn't back down. In fact, she went the opposite way; she took a step toward Hiro, their faces an inch apart. "Hiro. I can _help you._ I'm a part of this team, too."

"You're not."

She narrowed her eyes so much that he could barely see her irises.

"Remember when you needed to find out about the Buddy Guardians?"

Hiro didn't answer. He already knew what she was going to say.

"You didn't get the team together. You didn't call any of them. You called _me._ And I was against it, but you were the one who convinced me to help. So that's what I did. I went with you and played hero for a bit."

She pressed a finger into his chest.

"And now when I actually _want_ to help, and I'm in a position _to_ help, you don't want it."

Her face came even closer.

"What happened, Hiro?"

"Trina happened."

Hiro finally spoke up, trying to ignore the fact that his foot was twitching. "You got kidnapped. And you got kidnapped because of me. And I've been thinking about that ever since we put Trina in jail. I'm not going to put you in danger again."

Megan was still staring at him. It was getting harder and harder to keep eye contact with her.

"It's not just that, is it?"

Her other hand brushed up against his.

"It was because of what happened at my house. It's because I kissed you...isn't it?"

He didn't need this. Not now.

"Hiro..."

Megan's finger curled around his hand.

"Talk to me."

For a split second, Hiro wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her everything. About Karmi. About her. About where his mind was. But his mind was barely there as it was. As much as he wanted it...he knew that it wasn't the time.

So he pushed it away with his own finger.

"Megan, I promise that when this is over, and this whole thing is behind us...we'll talk. But not right now. I have more important things to take care of."

Hiro grabbed both of her shoulders with his hands. "I can't be worrying about you. So just...go home. I'll try to keep you updated. But the best thing that you can do for us is to stay out of danger."

She backed off a fair bit, looking hurt. But it must have been a trick of the light, because her face changed quickly back to her normal self.

"I understand. I'll be a good little girl and go hide in my room. That's what you want, right?"

"Megan..."

He didn't get a chance to respond, because Megan turned tail and walked away, hiding her face from him.

"Megan, wait!"

Too late. She had already turned the corner and was out of sight. Frustrated, Hiro kicked the ground, aiming for a rock jutting out of the ground. Too bad for him that it was snug into the earth, causing his toe to cry out in pain.

"Great. Wonderful." Hiro rubbed the top of his shoe. "Anything else want to happen to me?"

"I have a suggestion."

He turned toward the garage door, the sound of Go Go's voice carrying through.

"Soundproof your door so that your friends can't listen to awkward conversations through it."

_"I'll will mark it down as a project on Hiro's To-Do list."_

Hiro set his forehead against the wall, letting out a small growl.

* * *

_Later that day..._

Chief Cruz walked into the offices at the precinct, dog tired. He already had an eventful morning, personally taking care of the incident report that Big Hero 6 and their mysterious assailants. There hadn't been too much damage to the warehouses (just a broken skylight and several destroyed boxes), but the amount of arrows strewn around made him very uneasy.

There still hadn't been any leads on the rogue archer, and two more criminals has been shot that night alone. Just like the others, they'd be fine once the hospital got done with them, but the injuries were starting to pile up.

And it wasn't just the general public. It was the force too.

Cruz took a look around at the desks. More officers were now calling out; almost all of the rookies' desks were empty.

All except for one.

Bishop was at hers, staring down at what was a ludicrous amount of paperwork. With a lot of people out of commission, the amount of office duties were starting to fall behind, and he had recruited her to help with some of it. She wasn't a fan of it at all, but she had ventured in early in the morning to help.

She pulled her glasses off of her head, cleaning a smudge on her lens. She looked like she had gotten about an hour of sleep, the bags under her eyes heavy and dark. Maybe that's why she always kept those things on.

"You OK, Bishop?"

She rubbed her eye, her voice coming in low and gravely. "Up late last night. Didn't get a lot of shut-eye."

"You know, you should really work on getting a proper sleep schedule."

"Trust me, sir. I've been working on that for years. You have any suggestions?"

"I find that whiskey helps."

Bishop glared up at him.

"Or whatever your preferred choice of alcohol is. I don't judge."

She set her head on the desk, the cue that she had hit her wall. "Bishop, why don't you go take a break? You need some caffeine and sugar. I brought donuts; they're in the break room. They're not as good as Duncan's, but they'll get the job done."

"I need to finish this," she mumbled.

"Kate, it's still going to be here when you get back."

"Ugh." She relented, getting up from her chair. "The coffee's not going to work. I'm going to need to find a spot to get some."

Chief Cruz laughed. The aunt of one of my daughter's friends owns a cafe near the center part of the city. You should go there sometime. She makes really good coffee."

"Your daughter?" She pointed over to his office door. "You mean the girl that's in your office right now?"

He whirled around to see the corner of his desk through the crack. He turned back to his rookie. "When were you going to tell me that she was here?"

"To be fair, sir, she just walked in right before you did."Upon further review of Cruz's glare, she backed away toward the exit. "I'm going to go get that donut now."

Cruz watched her walk off, but his priority was now on the new person sitting in his chair. She was twirling it around like a carnival ride, her smile growing even wider as he strolled in.

"Hi, Dad!"

"Hi...Megan." He set his hat down on the desk. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't just come and say hello to my dear father at work?"

"Not with that tone, no."

Megan stopped the chair facing forward, the big toothy grin not wavering. "You promised that you would take me on a ride-along once school ended."

"Yes. I do remember saying that. But Megan, I don't think you could have picked a worse time to make good on that deal. I got so many things going right now."

"But Daaaad! You promised!"

There was a knock on the door, and Bishop poked her head back in. "Sir, there may or may not be any more donuts in the break room." She pushed it open even further, half of a pastry in her hand. "And it may or may not be because I ate all of the rest of them."

"How about her, Dad?"

Megan jumped out of the chair and leaped over to Bishop, snagging her arm. "Why can't she take me? Since you're so _busy_?"

The woman's eyes were going back and forth between the teen latched to her and her boss. She clearly didn't know what she had walked into. Nevertheless, it didn't look like Megan was going to let up. So, he had to think of something.

"Bishop." He rubbed his temple in an attempt to deaden his headache. "I hate to do this to you, but can you keep my daughter occupied for a little bit? You can leave the rest of the paperwork for tomorrow." He checked his computer and the police roster. "Lester's at his house; why don't you go pick him up before shift starts and you three can go cruise around for a little bit while I try to catch up here."

"I'm not...really much of a babysitter, sir."

"Hey! I'm 14."

Cruz looked up at her pleadingly. "Bishop, I'll do the paperwork for you if you do this. Promise."

Bishop's eyes narrowed, but even she knew a lost cause when she saw it. "Fine. Let's go, kiddo."

"Yay!" Megan gave her dad a quick kiss on the cheek before running out the door. "I'll be waiting in the parking lot!"

The woman watched her go and then turned to her boss, who could only roll his eyes. "No, I don't know where she gets the energy from. Certainly not me."

* * *

Hiro sighed, still looking over his board. It wasn't that long ago that there was one with _his_ picture on it, but thankfully that wasn't around any more. Now it was just Bishop's...

His eyes went over to the printout of her file. Go Go had made a good point about her; being that young and going through what she had in Neo York was a lot for anyone, especially someone young like her.

Dare he even say...relatable?

"Hiro, you have to focus," he said under his breath.

The problem was that he didn't even know what to focus on anymore. There was the ongoing ordeal with Bishop. There was the _other_ problem with Bishop hunting them down. Then there was the other, _other_ problem with some mystery person going behind her and severely injuring his teammates.

And then there was Megan.

He had told himself that she wasn't as important as everything else going on, but seeing the look of hurt on her face had rattled him. The truth was that the kiss _had_ bothered him.

It had bothered him because he had liked it.

The last contact that he had with Karmi seemed like so long ago. It had only probably been a few weeks, but every night, his mind would drift back to her. It came to the point where he had even started hallucinating her in his room just so that he could "see" her. He was so starved for some sort of physical contact that it hurt.

And it wasn't like Megan was doing it in on purpose. He had known that she liked him for a while, but like most things during the end of the semester, he had to put it on the back burner to focus on graduation, not getting caught by her dad, and eventually Trina.

It hurt him to say this, but he had no idea when he was going to see Karmi again. Or _if_.

So maybe...

"Stop, brain."

_But you like her._

"I said stop."

Hiro quickly looked behind him. It was a good thing that everyone else had left to run errands. He wouldn't be able to handle any more of the group's teasing about him and Megan.

_Most people don't have their share of options when it comes to partners. You're a lucky guy._

"I said-"

Hold on.

He pushed his consciousness away. Partners...the word had jostled something in his mind. He quickly looked up at the board, mumbling to himself as he skimmed over Bishop's file again.

"She said something about Bishop having new partners once her original one got hurt."

Hiro went through his contacts and found what he was looking for. He quickly dialed the number and put the phone to his ear. Thankfully, she answered on the first ring.

" _Mr. Hamada?"  
_

"I need Detective Pezzini's number."

* * *

_Thirty seconds and two missed calls later..._

" _You want me to what now?"  
_

"Ma'am-"

_"I thought I told you not to call me that."_

Hiro winced. "Sorry, Detective. I'm just in a hurry. I'll say it again." He tapped the pencil on the desk. "I need the list of partners that Officer Bishop had before she was discharged."

" _How did you even get this number? Actually, don't answer that."_ Sara held up her hand on the screen. _"Grace gave it to you, didn't she?"_

"Yeah."

 _"I can't tell whether I should be happy or concerned that she's training an apprentice,"_ she joked. She started going to town on her laptop. _"Give me a second. Shouldn't take long because that's actually public information. Doesn't need to be put on a private server."_

"I know you mentioned that she had at least a few. Is it normal for officers to have that many?"

 _"Not unless they're something going on."_ She glanced up at him. _"Let me guess. You think something's going on."  
_

"Maybe."

She leaned back into her chair, her typing finished. _"She had five in total after her original partner. Here are the names..."_

Hiro jotted down all of the names on a spare notepad.

" _None of them lasted more than two weeks. Says on Jangles's transfer paperwork that he couldn't handle her attitude. In fact...they all pretty much had the same complaint."  
_

"Can I get those, too?"

Sara hesitated for a second, and then hit the Enter key. _"I'm only doing this because you're a cute kid. That, and Grace will probably find out one way or another."  
_

"Thank you, Detective. I really appreciate all of the help."

" _ **You**_ _gonna tell me why you need all of this stuff?"_

"I'm following a hunch. I think that something's up with Officer Bishop. And I don't think it's entirely in her control."

Sara stared at him for a long moment. Finally, she laughed out loud. _"Man, Grace picked a good person. You're just like her. Maybe you should join the force over here. I know a few people..."_

"I don't really need more on my plate right now, Detective. But I appreciate the offer." Hiro gave her a two fingered salute. "Thank you again."

He ended the call and turned toward Baymax, who had just finished his debugging process and was now fully awake. "Baymax, I have files that I need you to look at. I'm downloading them to you now."

" _Is there anything in particular I am looking for?"_

"Not sure yet. But bring them up on your screen."

Baymax's eyes glowed blue, and his stomach came up with the screenshots of the paperwork. It was the same paper, each one handwritten with a formal complaint against Officer Bishop. Attitude, outbursts, reckless behavior...every one characterized her the same way.

The _exact_ same way.

"Hold on." Hiro poked at his stomach. "They all used the same words in exactly the same order."

" _Hiro, I have found something that may interest you."_ Small red circles started being drawn around random letters on the paper. _"After analyzing the handwriting on these papers, I can come to a 99.9% conclusion that they were all written-"_

"By the same person," he finished. He sat back down in his chair. "Handwriting's just as unique as fingerprints. It would be extremely difficult to duplicate it exactly. And these were all at different times. The time stamp on the documents confirms that."

Was this really happening? Was his brain reaching the conclusion he thought it was?

"Baymax, can you bring up the pictures of the five officers that Detective Pezzini gave me on the holoprojector?"

The camera next to his computer activated, and five rectangles slotted up around Hiro in the middle of the room, each one housing a picture. Hiro looked at the first one, trying to memorize the features on his face.

"Lester Jangles..."

He moved to the next one.

"Leonard McClain..."

Hiro looked at the rest, his mind racing.

"Benjamin Poindexter. Frank Castle. Issac Bull."

They all looked normal enough. One of them had red hair. One was blonde. The rest were brown. A couple had glasses, one had a crooked nose, one sunken cheeks. Nothing really stood out.

Hiro's eyes wandered up above Bull's sunglasses...and his heart jumped.

There was a scar around the top of his eyebrow, almost circular in shape. It looked like he had tried to conceal it with some sort of makeup, but even in the picture, it was still noticeable. It looked rather deep, too, like someone had jammed some glass into his skin.

He quickly moved over to Jangles. Yup, there it was again. The same scar. Following a hunch, he threw his arms out wide and slowly brought them back together, taking the images with him. They all collapsed together into one jumbled profile...

But the scars matched up.

" _The complaints were not only written by the same person..."  
_

Hiro looked up at Baymax, coming to the same realization he did.

"All five of them _were_ the same person."

* * *

"So how'd you become a police officer?"

Megan leaned over the center console.

"Did your parents want you to join the police?"

Her head was almost at the steering wheel.

"What did you have to get at your house?"

"Seatbelt on, kiddo."

She went back into the passenger seat. "What's in the bag?"

"You ask way too many questions."

Megan had been mad at what Hiro had told her. About five minutes after she had left, she was still fuming. It wasn't that he was preoccupied with other things; that was something she had gotten used to very early on in their friendship. It was the fact that he had so easily pushed her away even though she knew that he was bothered by what she did. And when she had offered to help, he didn't want that either.

She _could_ help him figure out what made Officer Bishop tick.

So instead of doing what Hiro wanted and go home and sit on her bed and twiddle her thumbs...she did what she was best at.

Investigating.

Which was why she had shown up at the precinct hoping that she would be there for her plan to go forward.

Now for the fact-finding.

"Have you ever seen a dead body?"

Bishop slowly shook her head. "I don't get paid enough for this."

"But I'm just curious, that's all," Megan insisted as they rolled up to what she presumed was Lester's house. It looked very rundown from the outside, most of the paint peeled off on the outer walls. "I don't get to talk to a lot of people. Overprotective dad and all that."

The woman sighed again and held up her fingers one by one. "Academy, no, not your business, _still_ not your business, and yes. Happy now?"

"Yup."

"Good, now get in the back."

Megan got out and about-faced to jump into the backseat to make room for Lester. The man silently slid into the seat, his full uniform already on. He pushed his hat over his forehead as he nodded to Bishop, who started the car back up.

"Talkative as always, Lester."

The man said nothing.

"Try to make him talk, kiddo."

She turned to the man in front of her, ready to start talking his ear off, but instead she got a glare thrown at her, the sunglasses shining back at her.

"I...think I'll pass."

* * *

"You _have_ to be kidding me."

After his sudden realization, Hiro had called everybody back to the garage. They had made it back in record time, partially due to the large amount of capital letters he had used in the group text.

But enough about his grammar.

"So you're saying that you think our second person is the same guy that was Bishop's partner back in Neo York."

" _All_ of her partners, yeah." Hiro patted Baymax's stomach. "I had Baymax do a facial recognition on all of their profiles. He did a very good job of trying to mask his identity. Some sort of cosmetic surgery, hairpieces, even colored contacts...but they're all definitely the same person."

"But why would someone go through all of the trouble of doing that?"

"See, this is the part where I'm guessing again," Hiro said. "Fred, you mentioned that they never found the ringleader of that Bullseye group, right?"

"Yeah."

"I think that after his operation got shut down, he infiltrated his way into the NYPD and started making her life miserable. Driving her insane. Exacerbating her already questionable attitude after her partner died."

"Being her shadow all of this time. A constant reminder of her failure," Go Go finished. "That would make anyone question their thinking."

Honey Lemon nodded. "So now that we know who it is, we have to stop them. Not just for our sake. For Officer Bishop's, too."

"Did you guys forget everything she's done? Fighting us? Investigating us? Do you think she's going to just stop that?"

"Maybe," Hiro said. "Wasabi, if we can stop this guy, maybe it will get her off of our backs. Two birds and one stone."

_And then you can get to worrying about Megan again._

The boy genius shook his head. Great, _that_ was coming up again.

" _Hiro, you have an incoming call from Megan."_

"Put it on screen, Baymax."

"Don't listen to Go Go-"

It was too late; his robot had already placed the call on his feed. The panicked face of Megan came up, and it looked like she was sitting in the backseat of a car.

" _Uhhh, guys?"_

"What's up, Megan?"

Hiro forced himself to look at her, their earlier conversation still lingering. But that got pushed away when she pushed her phone to the window, showing a familiar, multi-armed face walking down the street, the public running away from sliced cars and lightposts.

" _I'm going to need your assistance downtown."_ Her face came back into view. _"Like now!"_

"Stay there," Hiro said. "We're on our way."

* * *

As Hiro hung up the call, Megan peered out the window, Coat of Arms now fully enraged by whatever was going on around her.

"Yeah, like I'm going out there with that madwoman." She lowered her head so that only her eyes were visible from outside. "That's where you guys come in..."

* * *

_A quick suit-up later..._

"I can't believe it. _Twice_ he said they would be here! Where are they?"

Bishop looked over the hood of the car parked on the road, trying to gauge the situation. "Lester, you have any idea what she's blabbing about?"

He shook his head.

"...Good talk." She aimed her pistol at the ground next to the girl and fired. The laser shot ricocheted right near her foot, causing her attention to focus on her now.

"Freeze!"

"Do you guys ever get tired of say that?" She pointed one of her arms in her direction. "It never works. I don't think I've seen one criminal actually listen to that command."

"Maybe you should be the first one!"

The shout came from high above, and recognizing the voice, she tried to dodge out of the way. But to her horror, she looked down to see her feet were already frozen to the ground. Growling, she stabbed two of her knives into the ice, freeing her legs.

"Oh no, you don't!"

A yellow blur was right next to her, grabbing the front of her coat and dragging her with it. She refocused her eyes as the person started climbing up the side of the building. Through the tinted visor, she saw a girl's face, the smirk on it growing.

"We're taking a little trip, Lisa. Keep your arms in the ride at all times."

She glanced at the multiple other sleeves in her coat.

"And I _do_ mean all of them."

Meanwhile, Bishop saw her getting carried up toward the sky. She holstered her weapon and started running back to her car. "Lester, stay here and see if there are any injuries. I'm going to call in back-up."

She didn't hear her partner respond, which was typical for the entire afternoon. But she didn't waste any time, because she was already back at her patrol car. She opened the back and hastily pulled out her bag, closing the trunk with a thud.

"Where are you going?"

She realized that Megan was still in the car and peeked her head through one of the open windows. "Stay here, kid. Lester's going to come and take you back to the station."

"What about you?" she asked.

Bishop looked down at her bag, the tip of one of her arrows barely seen.

"I got some unfinished business to take care of."

* * *

_Meanwhile, about a hundred feet up…_

"Now _this_ is more like it!"

"You didn't tell us that Coat of Arms was this...excitable," Wasabi whispered over at Hiro.

"Yeah, it must've slipped my mind."

He didn't care if Wasabi got the sarcasm; they needed to focus. Go Go had deposited the girl onto the roof, where the rest of the team was waiting for her. The mistake was letting her get up to her feet as she threw her arms out for them to see.

And then he quickly saw that she has increased the amount of arms from last time by fifty percent.

"One for each of you guys!" she had yelled, her top left arm waving at them. "I've been waiting for this."

He'd have to figure out the logistics of her appendages later; right now, they were having a tough time. They had to focus on attacking her in groups of two or three. There was no way they'd be handle her one at a time.

The problem was that she wasn't giving them enough time to concentrate. Wasabi was having the best of it, being the swordsman and all. Go Go was good at it as well, her speed being an asset. Fred was...Fred, so he was fine.

That left Honey Lemon, and even he could see that she was being more reserved than normal. He couldn't blame her; that was probably because the last two times they had been out, she had gotten shot with arrows.

But it looked like she was finally coming around. She held up her cannon and fired two balls, both of which landed on the villain's top hands, gumming up her hands and knives.

"Cool. You got two hands down." She grinned as one of her real hands was flat against Fred's head, his arms pinwheeling to try to reach her. "Too bad I have four other ones."

"Let me at her! Let me at her!"

"You know you can shoot fire at her, right?"

"Oh yeah!" With that, Fred leaped back and shot a plume of fire at her. She dodged out of the way, diving straight for Honey Lemon.

"Not gonna be good without your stupid designer purse, blondie!"

A blast of plasma came out from her left and hit her in the side, setting her off of her path. The launcher of said blast ran up to Honey Lemon. "You all right?"

"I...I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine."

Baymax flew right at them, plucking them off of the ground right before two of the silver daggers plunged into the ground where they were standing.

"Stay still, Dweeb Hero 6!"

Hiro had Baymax lower down to the opposite side, setting Wasabi and Honey Lemon back down. Fred and Go Go flanked them shortly afterward, a standoff now starting with Coat of Arms.

"Yeah, this has been fun, but I'm over it." Go Go cracked her knuckles in front of her. "Let's finish this."

"I couldn't agree more."

Another person dropped down onto the roof, and Hiro knew immediately who it was.

"You."

The newcomer pointed her bow not at the six-armed villain, but the six-membered team. The sun shined in her newly-repaired lenses as she steadied her arm. "I'm taking you in."

"Sheesh. Do you have any more dialogue other than that?" Fred said. "Like a 'I hope you get the point!' or a 'Shiver me timbers!' or something like that?"

"Really?"

"Hey, I don't see _you_ coming up with anything, Coat of Arms!" He pointed a long claw across the roof. "And you're suppose to be the villain here!"

The flying arrow interrupted his diatribe, coming close to entering his mouth. The tip instead starting secreting a thick liquid, cementing Fred into the roof.

"Got that little tip from you," Bishop motioned to Honey Lemon, cocking back another arrow. "Wanna know what else I have?"

"See? _That's_ the kind of banter I've been waiting for!"

Hiro ignored Fred's interjection, instead leaning down towards Go Go. "Can you take out Coat of Arms with Wasabi?"

"Yeah, I think so. What about you?"

"We'll keep Officer Bishop distracted. See if we can explain things to her."

Another arrow whizzed by Hiro's head, latching onto the edge of the roof.

"Yeah. Good luck with that." The Korean launched a disc at Coat of Arms, ending the conversation.

"Red Panda, Rocket Fist!"

Baymax sent a gauntlet screaming towards the archer, who tried to shoot the arrow at it. A green shield shined in front of the fingers, blocking the arrow and sending Bishop into the brick.

"The other one now!"

The officer looked up to see a second fist coming her way through the dust cloud. She bent back to let it fly past her...and then an arm shot out and grabbed her wrist, wrestling her back into the ground.

It hadn't been a fist. It was Hiro.

His lower body scraped around and hit the edge of the roof. He activated the thrusters in his boots for a split second to let him close the distance between the two. She had no chance to get another arrow ready, so she threw up her hands to block his attack. Both of his palms grasped her wrists, pinning them into the ground.

Now Hiro and Bishop were kneeling on the roof, her braces being magnetized down by Hiro's gloves. He looked up to see her eyes glaring at him over her sunglasses, full of fury.

"It doesn't have to be like this, Officer Bishop," he whispered.

"Yeah. It does," she spat back. "What would a little perfect boy like you know about anyone like me?"

"I know what happened in Neo York."

Her gaze didn't waver, but he did feel her body tense up a tiny bit.

"I know about your partner. About what went wrong. And about why you're doing this."

The battle around them seemed to temper out, the noises becoming softer and softer.

"He didn't deserve to die."

The first hint of emotion came out of her mouth, and Hiro couldn't help but be a bit relieved. He was getting somewhere. "I know he didn't."

"And I'm finishing what he started."

"So is someone else."

Bishop raised her eyebrow at him.

"Officer Bishop, my teammates are being injured and hunted."

"I told your friend _and_ you I didn't do that."

"I know that now. Someone else is going behind you and messing with you. And they've been doing it ever since the arms bust."

Hiro leaned in even more. He need to make sure she heard him.

"Officer Bishop. I can help you. _We_ can help you. But you _have_ to trust me."

He eased the grip on her wrists, deactivating the magnetic coils.

And as soon as she felt them loosen...her fist met the side of his helmet.

He never knew that the daytime was filled with so many stars. His vision was blurry as he was launched backwards a few feet. Gathering himself, he looked up right as the tip of an arrow tap his visor.

"I'm sorry, kid."

Bishop's stern expression was back, her fingers barely holding the string back.

"But this was only going to end one way."

A rush of air went by both of them, and Bishop staggered back by the sudden arrival. Hiro saw a new cut on her cheek. She must have been able to dodge it at the last second.

Too bad the arrow in the ground was not one of hers.

"Guys!" Hiro yelled. "He's here!"

A dark cloud of smoke once again came out and obscured his vision. But he wasn't going to wait around for someone to beat up his friends. This time, he was prepared.

"Tall Girl! Do it!"

He felt a burst of air from his far right. He hoped that Honey Lemon remembered that her new chemballs could be deposited into her boots. But it seemed like she had gotten the hint, because a second later, a giant gust of wind came and blew the entire cloud off of the roof. He saw Honey Lemon coming back to land on the roof, now completely clear.

Hiro took a tally of the rest of his teammates. Good, it looked their mystery assailant didn't have a chance to attack anyone else. Go Go was helping Wasabi up to his feet, Fred was dusting himself off, and Baymax was already scanning around for possible injuries.

"That stupid jerk..."

He whirled his head around to see the only other occupant of the roof kneeling on the ground, the four robot arms punctured by thick arrows and deactivated.

And there was a new sight that caused him to take pause: two new, short thin arrows from Bishop's bag sticking through her two real wrists.

"He said he needed his help. I did everything he asked me to…"

With that, she fell to her side, unconscious.

"Hiro, Officer Bishop…"

Hiro suddenly remembered who he was talking to before, and he turned his body to see if she was still there.

Nope. Gone.

"I thought for a second that she was going to change."

Wasabi bent down over Lisa and carefully pulled the darts out of her body. "Hiro, we can't worry about her right now. Coat of Arms is going to be fine, but we should probably get her to the police before anything else."

"Yeah." Hiro stared at the stop where Bishop had been kneeling. "Yeah, you're right…"

* * *

Back at the precinct, a now civilian Hiro walked into the building, his anger now bubbling over. Had he been wrong about her the entire time? Was there even any point in trying to get her to turn around?

Hiro looked down at his phone. In all of his searching for a motive and connection for what she was doing, Megan had apparently been texting him the entire time. Of course, given that the two weren't really on the best terms right now, he hadn't noticed them. But after reviewing them on the way to the police with Coat of Arms, they made him even more worried.

Megan had done the thing that he had specifically told her not to do: get involved. It was lucky that she had stayed in Bishop's car, or otherwise she could have gotten hurt.

He'd have to chastise her later...because right now, he had another Cruz to yell at.

"Hiro, where are we going?"

The rest of the team was following behind him as Hiro stomped over to the office that Detective Kato had taken him to. He yanked at the handle and threw the door open.

The scene inside was chaos. It seemed like the entire staff was inside, several conversations bouncing off of his ears. If the people that Cruz said were out because of illness had been there too, there wouldn't have been any room for them at all.

"Hiro! You can't be in here right now!"

Kato had spotted Hiro and his friends and was now right next to him. "We got a bit of a situation going on. You guys need to get out."

"Let me guess. A girl with six arms was dropped off here by Big Hero 6 with arrows in her."

"Uhhh…how do you know that?"

Hiro wasn't really in the mood to be discreet about his alter ego, but before he could correct himself, he heard yelling coming from the direction of Cruz's office. "What's happening in there?"

"Bishop's getting the riot act read at her. I didn't hear a lot of it, but-Hey!"

He didn't let him finish; he was already halfway to the door before Kato could stop him. He grabbed the handle and pulled it open.

"You're lucky that Lester cleaned up the mess you made! Otherwise, I'd-"

Chief Cruz was behind his desk, his face red with anger. Officer Bishop's was just as blotched, as if they had been yelling back and forth at each other for a long while. Upon realizing they weren't alone, Cruz looked over at the door to see the gang of six staring at them.

"What are you doing here, kiddo?"

"You know what?" Cruz interjected. "He can stay. All of them can stay, because they need to hear this, too. Shut the door, Fred."

The group piled in, almost shoulder-to-shoulder. Hiro had the unfortunate positioning right next to Bishop, but he was more worried about the chief in front of him.

"Hiro told me that you've been harassing him and his friends for the past few days. Something about an investigation from that incident with Lisa Molinari at the beachfront. Visiting them at their workplaces, charity events, residences. All when you were _suppose_ to be out on duty. Do you have anything to say for yourself, Bishop?"

The woman didn't turn her head, but he swore that she had looked down at him. Her face was still forward, her posture at attention as she addressed her boss.

"Sir, I have reason to believe that Hiro Hamada is a member of Big Hero 6."

Honey Lemon gasped from somewhere off to his right.

This was it. This was how it was going to end.

"And what evidence do you have to suggest this ridiculous accusation?"

Hold up.

Hiro's eyes went back to Cruz, who was staring his rookie down. Bishop had not been ready for a retort, so she instinctively grabbed her wrist to steady it. He noticed that she had some sort of white cloth wrapped around it, a few red blotches seeping into the material.

Almost like she had been shot herself…

"I'm in the middle of gathering it right now. I have a full report for you by-"

"That's enough."

Chief Cruz stood up, and his face was reddening again. Hiro felt a little bit of relief that this side of him was directed at someone else and not at him. It had only been a few weeks ago since that face was yelling through a megaphone at him. He didn't pity Bishop at all.

"You've done enough damage here to this force and to these kids. I don't want to hear anything else out of you except an apology to Hiro and his friends."

Bishop's mouth was a thin line.

"I'm not apologizing for any of my actions, sir. I was doing what was right."

OK, _now_ he was regretting walking into the office.

Cruz walked around the desk and stared into her sunglasses. If it had been him, he would have buckled at the knees. But Bishop stood her ground.

"You're suspended."

The top of her eyebrow appeared over the lens. "Sir, you can't do that! You need me. There's already a ton of people out, and you need every body you can get."

"This isn't up for debate, Bishop," he said. "I'll repeat it so that I know you heard it. You're suspended. For three days. And you're _really_ lucky that it isn't more. Consider it me being _nice._ "

He leaned in, his fury barely contained.

"Now... _get out of my office._ "

Bishop really looked like she wanted to say something back to him, but whether it was her restraining herself or some other force at play was unknown. Nevertheless, she turned on the spot and started roughly pushing past everyone to get to the door.

" _Would you like a hug?"_

She ducked past Baymax's arm and went through the door, shutting it as hard as she could. The rest of the officers went quiet for a moment before the second door shut just as harshly.

"I'm sorry you had to be here for that, guys," Cruz whispered as the noise started coming back up. "I've just about had it with her."

"So have we."

"What do you mean, Go Go?"

Hiro stepped in before she could speak. "Chief Cruz, she's one of the archers that we've been dealing with for the past week. She's the one that's been trying to take us down on patrols. She's the one that took out Coat of Arms."

"Wait, hold on." Cruz held up his hand. "What do you mean by 'one of them'?"

He opened his mouth to continue, but it was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw Megan's profile on it. "Hold on, Megan's calling me."

"Great. She must be on her way back here with Lester."

He picked up the call and saw Megan's face on the screen. But it didn't look like she was in a car now. It looked more like a factory, which was weird. Why would she be-

_"Hiro! You have to come and get me! I'm-"  
_

She never finished her sentence, because the phone got violently yanked around, the camera blurring everything around her.

"Megan!"

Instantly, the camera fixed itself, but Megan was no longer in the frame. Instead, it was a man, the police hat on his head and sunglasses on his face. He didn't immediately recognize him, but his demeanor was the complete opposite of the younger Cruz.

" _Sorry, the girl can't come to the phone right now. She's a little...tied-up."_

Hiro's blood ran cold. Everyone else in the room must have heard him talk to, because nobody else was talking.

" _Now, can you be a good little boy and hand me off to her dad? The adults need to have a talk."_

Silently, Hiro handed him the phone, who was stone-faced. He set the phone down on the desk and set his hands on either side.

"Lester? What are you-"

_"Sorry, Chief. I'm going to be the one talking here. Not you."_

Hiro thought hard. Why was that name so familiar?

And then it hit him.

He crept over to the door and peeked through the blinds, searching for something.

" _As you can tell, I have something you want. Your little daughter, the light of your life. And before you ask, she's perfectly fine. And she'll stay that way...as long as you give me what I want."_

His eyes panned over the desks, trying to see the nameplates on them.

"What _do_ you want?" Chief Cruz whispered.

_"It's quite simple."_

The man paused for a second, and then finished his demand.

" _I want Officer Kate Bishop."_

B. Juwono. J. Simmons. J. Jaffe.

His eyes went to the desk in the corner.

J. Lester.

Lester J.

Lester Jangles.

Hiro audibly gasped.

"Hiro, what is it?" Wasabi whispered.

He didn't answer him, but turned to Baymax and started poking at his screen.

" _And you're going to give her to me before the end of the day. Because if you don't…"  
_

He found what he was looking for. He brought up the picture of the five profiles and pressed the side of Baymax's head, projecting it onto the wall.

" _Let's just say your daughter is going to have a very rough time."_

Cruz stared into the phone, his fist trembling. "I don't negotiate with criminals."

 _"Oh, but I think you'll make an exception for this. You see, Chief,"_ the man continued, _"I know her better than anyone. I know her better than herself. And I know that you've just about had it with her. She's too much to handle. A rogue officer who doesn't work well with others. If you think about it, I'm taking her off of your hands. You should be thanking me."  
_

"I guess you don't know me very well, then."

The man on the phone let out a creepy chuckle. _"Well, like I said, I don't have to know you. I do know Bishop, and she'll come crawling to me eventually."_

"Because that's how you set this whole thing up, right?"

Everyone in the room turned to Hiro, who pressed the final button on Baymax's console.

"You've been stalking her. Keeping tabs on her for the past few years. Not from the shadows where you hurt innocent people, but from right under her nose."

One of his robot's eyes had the conglomerate of profiles from Neo York. The other eye had a picture from San Fransokyo's database.

"You're destroying her life from the inside out...because she destroyed yours."

Hiro started walking around the desk, his eyes not leaving the phone.

"She and her partner took down your entire operation. And it wasn't enough that you killed her partner. You had to do more. Infiltrating the police force. Taking down Big Hero 6 before she could. Undermining every little thing she did for your sick, twisted game."

He arrived right next to Cruz, who was full-on staring at him now.

"Isn't that right, Officer Lester?"

He nodded to Baymax, who digitally brought the two faces together on the wall.

And the scars, even with all of the surgery and coverings...lined up.

"Or should I say Lester Jangles? Leonard McClain? Benjamin Poindexter? Frank Castle? Issac Bull?"

Now it was Hiro that was looking at the phone, where the man's smile was growing even more sadistic.

"But none of those are your real name, is it? I haven't figured out that part yet. But I got everything else right, didn't I?"

Hiro saw the man lean back, letting out a laugh that made his heart hurt. After a few seconds, his face came back down, the sunglasses lowered on his nose.

" _Kiddo, I only got one thing to say to you…"_

He grabbed the hinge of his glasses and took them off completely. Because he didn't need to hide any longer, the team and Cruz saw the entirety of his scar: almost a complete circle around his left eye. The actual iris was still dark in color, but his iris was pure white. The alternating colors of the scar and his eye made it look like a target.

A look of triumph on his face, he brought his hand up to the eye, pointed two fingers at it...and then pulled his hand back.

Just like he was firing a gun.

" _Bullseye."  
_

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Well, we went from a seven all the way up to an eleven with this. Now you know why everything's been so fishy from the start. It's because Kate's not the one pulling the strings.

Bullseye is.

I didn't really have a specific inspiration for the BH6 version of Bullseye. It's sort of a mix between the _Daredevil_ movie one and his comic one. And yes, I know that he's a Daredevil villain, but Mr. Murdoch's not planning on making an appearance in this story. So I did the next best thing.

In case you haven't been following along, Bullseye has used each of those names (minus Issac Bull) as an alias/cover name in the comics before. And he's just as sick and demented here as he is in the comics.

Too bad he's messing with the wrong crowd.

I know that I've thrown a lot in this chapter, but we have even more coming up in the next one. The search for Megan, the final fight between the team and Bullseye, and a confrontation between Cruz and Bishop that you are not going to want to miss.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time, everyone.


	6. Stabilizer

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation. Better make sure your aim is good._

* * *

_**Chapter 6 – Stabilizer** _

In the short time that he had known Chief Cruz, Hiro knew he was a good man at heart.

He was good at his job. He loves his daughter. He always wanted to make things right.

That was why when he came out at that press conference and apologized to the Big Hero 6 team, the city, and the entire police force, he had accepted it. Yes, there was still a little animosity for everything that had happened, but deep down, he knew that it was genuine.

But standing in the elder Cruz's office and looking at his face as the criminal known as Bullseye ended the phone call between them...he was afraid.

Not of him.

 _For_ him.

At least when Megan got kidnapped the first time, there wasn't any time to think about the situation. They had rocketed off, confronted Trina and Noodle Burger Boy, and rescued her in almost no time flat.

Here, it was like the seconds were passing in slow motion.

Cruz sat back down in his chair, Hiro's phone now off. He looked like he was getting ready to fight back every single emotion at once.

"I let that maniac into this building. I let him go all over this place. I...I let Megan go with him and Bishop."

"Chief Cruz, there was _no way_ you would have known," Wasabi insisted. "It sounds like he's been fooling people for years; you were just another person in his way."

Hiro slowly pulled the phone off of the desk, staring at the screen. The look on Megan's face right before she cut out...it was the stuff of nightmares.

"It's not your fault, Chief Cruz. It's mine."

The chief turned to look at him. "Hiro..."

He ran his thumb over the side of the phone. "Megan came over to our house this morning. She wanted to help us track down what was going on with Officer Bishop, but I told her no over and over again. I should have just let her in."

His hand enclosed around the cell, threatening to crush it entirely.

"Maybe she wouldn't have tried so hard if I had just-"

"Hiro."

He was almost glad it was Go Go who had interrupted him, because he was getting ready to spill everything that happened at her house. Instead, the Korean had her hands on her hips, staring both Chief Cruz and him down.

"Whatever happened between you and Megan...that doesn't matter now. The only thing that's important is rescuing her and taking this Bullseye guy down."

Cruz was giving Hiro a look, and he didn't even have to see his face to know that. Clearly Megan hadn't told him about what had happened a couple of days ago. But like his friend said, it wasn't high on the priority list. "She's right. We need to get our heads in the game. It won't do us or Megan any good to sit here and-"

A motion came out of the corner of his eyes, and he turned his head to see the police chief getting up from his chair. He grabbed the hat off of the desk and slapped it on his head.

"Sir?"

He said nothing as he strode over to the door and pulled it open. The entire group silently followed behind him, Hiro now seeing the other officers' faces acknowledging his presence.

At first, Cruz remained silent as the rest of the room went silent. He tapped his finger on his emblem's hat and spoke up for the first time since the call ended.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a situation."

He panned his eyes around the office and steadied his voice.

"My daughter has been taken hostage by one of our own. Officer Lester."

A couple of the rookies exchanged quick glances, but didn't say anything.

"I don't have all of the facts, but this man needs to be stopped before he can hurt anyone else. Even worse, there's another person of interest that we need to bring in."

Cruz looked back at Hiro for a fleeting second.

"And that's Officer Kate Bishop."

Hiro was flabbergasted. He took a step forward, ready to cut him off, but Fred put a hand on his shoulder to stop his progress.

"So here's what we're going to do. I know that we're spread thin, but I need everyone to be on this. We have someone's life possibly at stake." he then started barking out orders. "I need two teams to go out to Lester's and Bishop's residences and see what you can find out. The rest of you, start canvasing the city. Track down everything you can. Search in every stupid house if you have to!"

He had been calm right before that last sentence, but he was breaking down right before their eyes.

"Sir." One of the rookies spoke up. "Maybe you should stay here. At least until we get a lead or something. It doesn't seem like you're-"

Cruz was in front of him in a flash, staring him down so hard that Hiro thought the officer would be reduced to a blubbering mess. To his credit, the rookie stood his ground. The two engaged in a silent back-and-forth for a few moments.

And then the chief's expression softened.

"I will rest once we find my daughter and bring this guy to justice."

"What about Kate, sir? I know that she's been on your bad side ever since she got here, but you don't...actually think she has something to do with this, right?"

"We'll worry about that when we get her back here. Now, I need everyone to gear up. You're all leaving in five."

The officers started quickly getting their things together. Chief Cruz turned back toward Hiro and the gang, running a hand over his face.

"Chief," Hiro started, "You saw the call. Officer Bishop's not the one behind this-"

He didn't get a chance to finish, because Cruz bent down and placed both of his hands on his shoulders. "Hiro, let _me_ worry about Kate. I got these guys working on that. I need you to find Megan."

His grip became even tighter.

"Please."

"...OK." He took a deep breath as the rest of the group stepped forward. "Go Go, Fred, start going around the city. Work with the officers so that we can cover more ground."

"Hiro, we don't even know what we're looking for-"

Go Go grabbed Fred's wrist and started dragging him toward the door. "We're on it, Hiro."

"Wasabi, go to Lester's place and help them look for clues."

"You don't think he's there?"

"No. I don't." Hiro brought his phone up again. "From what little I saw, the background didn't seem like a house. But I'm going to stay here and try to touch up the video so we can see a little better. Honey Lemon, you-"

Now he cut himself off, because he was now aware of a person missing from the room.

"Baymax...where's Honey Lemon?"

The robot turned his head to the left.

And then to the right.

And back at Hiro.

" _I do not know."_

* * *

_An impressively large amount of distance away..._

Bishop's feet hit the sand, the minuscule particles digging between her toes.

She hadn't really cared for the beaches in Neo York. Too noisy. Too crowded. Too much like the city.

San Fransokyo was an easier place. The ocean here was better. Still crowded, but at least it was manageable.

Too bad she hadn't gotten a chance to properly enjoy them since her arrival.

Bishop sat down on the nearest bench and set her shoes down on the ground next to her. She was still in uniform, but her feet were now bare and a few inches into the sand. The sun was just about to hit the horizon, and thus the end of the day was approaching. There were only a few people on the beach now, mostly parents trying to get their kids out of the water so they can towel off and go home.

"Is this seat taken?"

She didn't want to be bothered at the moment, especially after the day she had, but she was still technically on duty. So being polite sort of came with the job. "Nope. Go ahead."

"Thanks."

Someones sat down next to her, and Bishop looked down to see the pink high heels tilted under the bench.

And the pink skirt.

And the purse.

"Hello, Officer Bishop."

She yanked her head up to see Honey Lemon occupying the bench with her. She crossed her legs and followed the officer's gaze out into the sky.

"I like coming here at this time of night. It's so pretty. Not nearly enough as I used to because...well, you know."

"Not to interrupt your trip down memory lane, but how on Earth did you find me?"

Honey Lemon merely smiled and pointed down. Bishop looked to see a bright pink smudge on her pants.

"A little concentrated liquid iron gets off a very large magnetic field. All I had to do was use something of the opposite charge (she held up a small black orb) to track it."

"...You put that on me when we were in Chief Cruz's office."

"As you were exiting, yeah. I had a hunch that we'd need to find you at some point tonight, and it seems like I was right."

"Mommy! Look who it is!"

A little girl went running up to Honey Lemon and hugged her leg. "It's Tall Girl!"

"Now, Ashley, what did I say about just running up to people? You need to be polite." A woman walked up next to them and swept back her hair. "You'll have to excuse her, but she's really excited to see you."

"Oh, I don't mind, Ms. Crawford." Honey Lemon bent down to the girl's level. "How are you doing today, Ashley?"

The little girl gasped very loudly and turned back to her mom. "Mommy! She knows my name! She must read minds!"

"Yes, I'm sure she can. But let's leave her and this young lady alone, OK? It looks like they're in the middle of something." She leaned over to Bishop. "My apologies, officer."

"It's all right, ma'am. Really."

Ms. Crawford simply smiled and led Ashley away. The girl was still grinning ear-to-ear, waving her hand at them as fast as it would go. Honey Lemon merely waved back until they were out of sight around the corner.

"Tall Girl?"

Bishop's eyebrow was right over the frame of her sunglasses, the tiniest of smirks emerging. "Really? You're like what?" She nodded her head down and back up again. "Five foot nine?"

"Ten. And don't even get me started on the name. It wasn't my idea."

Their attention returned back to the sun, the night starting to settle in. Everyone else had cleared out; they had the beach to themselves.

"Officer Bishop..."

The woman looked to see her companion had taken off her helmet. She patted her ponytail down and turned to face her.

"My name is Aina Rodriguez. I'm a friend of Hiro's. And I'm also a member of Big Hero 6. But you already knew all of that."

Bishop saw her look to where the woman and her daughter had walked away.

"We're not the bad guys. We're here to help. We always have. Yes, sometimes we make things a little more complicated, and we're not perfect, but we do our best to make a difference. Just like you."

All Bishop could do was stare at her.

"We know about what happened to your partner. About how he passed after that raid gone wrong. I can't imagine what you must be feeling-"

"So don't."

Bishop leaned back into the hard bench, resting her arms to the side. "Don't try to relate to what I've been through. No one can."

Honey Lemon looked back to the sun, which was now just a small sliver in the sky.

"I lost someone important to me, too. Someone that I looked up to. Someone that was a mentor of sorts to me."

Her hand started absentmindedly tapping the helmet in her lap.

"I think about him every day. And I try to do good by him. If he were here today, he'd probably laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all. But he'd be supportive. I know it. Just like your partner would do for you."

Bishop let out a very heavy sigh, rubbing the inside of her lens to swipe at the tear gathering on it. "You sure know how to tug at someone's heartstrings, kiddo."

"Why do you call everyone 'kiddo'? You're not much older than I am."

"Force of habit, I guess," Bishop replied. "My partner called me that all the time. Annoyed the hell out of me."

"Well, at least you don't get called Tall Girl. Or Captain Cutie."

The officer let out another breath and tugged at her shirt collar. All of this emotional talk was making her uncomfortable.

"Hiro doesn't know you're here, does he?"

Honey Lemon put her helmet back on and lowered the visor. "No. He doesn't. But he's been busy with a few things that happened after you left." She stood up and adjusted her wristguards.

"Megan's been kidnapped."

Bishop stood up as well, albeit a little less gracefully than Honey Lemon.

"By someone who calls himself Bullseye. Does...that name mean anything to you?"

She put her hand on the back of the bench to keep her balance. It was clear to the Latina that wasn't a good sign.

"That name means everything to me." She steadied herself back up and clenched her fist. "That was the code name of the main boss behind the illegal arms operation. We never did end up catching the guy. Someone took the name?"

Honey Lemon shook her head. "No. It's actually him. He called Hiro's phone and spoke to Chief Cruz. Said a lot of things about you. We think he's been shadowing you ever since the raid. Following you from job to job and keeping tabs on you. He's been your partner this entire time. He was pretending to be an officer named Lester."

She threw the strap of her purse over her shoulder. "Officer Bishop...we need your help. And Chief Cruz wants the police to bring you in. He says you're a person of interest. Whether that means he thinks you're involved or he just wants you to be out of danger...I don't know. But both of us know that it won't go well either way."

"So what do you want me to do?"

Honey Lemon extended her hand. "Come with us. Help us take Bullseye down and rescue Megan. Help us end this."

Bishop's glare was evident even with the eye covering.

"Officer Bishop...Kate..."

Now even more so.

"You're a police officer. You have a sworn duty to do the right thing. I know that you don't like us, and you think that we're in the wrong, but there's more at stake here than just us. If he wins...he's just going to keep doing the same thing he has been."

The sound of sirens started reverberating over the stores on the beachfront.

"Kate, they're going to be here any second. Please."

Bishop looked down at her hand.

Then over her shoulder at the oncoming noise.

And finally back at Honey Lemon.

* * *

_Thirty seconds later..._

The police cruiser screeched up to Kate's car. Two rookies slowly got out and turned on their flashlights.

"I'm just wondering why Cruz sent me of all people to do this."

"Because her house turned up nothing, Ben, and then we remembered that she took her cruiser with her. We tracked her using the radio. Didn't you pay attention on the first day?"

"I did, Trey. Just not that particular part."

The shorter one peered into the driver's seat and flashed the light into the car. "Not in here."

"Ben?"

He bent up to see his partner pointing to the trunk. It was slightly open and still moving. Getting the jist, he pulled his weapon and pointed it at the lock.

"Go."

Trey heaved open the trunk door, and the two braced themselves for what was inside.

Nothing.

Well, not nothing.

Just a police cap and an unloaded firearm.

"Oh man. I thought it was going to be a body."

Ben sighed, moving his mouth to the police radio. "Dispatch, Bishop's car is at the beach. But she can't be far. We'll canvas around the area and see if anyone's seen her."

" _Copy that."  
_

"This doesn't make sense," Trey said, scratching his head. "It's almost like she knew we were coming. We even went radio silent and everything."

"Yeah, " Ben agreed. "Which begs the question..."

* * *

"Where is she?"

Hiro had been trying to contact Honey Lemon for the past half-hour, but hadn't managed to get a hold of her. Granted, he had been too busy trying to make any sense of where Megan could be, but all he could fix up were a few small semi-circles. That could literally be anything.

So there he was on the top of Krei Tech, "borrowing" the satellite of his employer to see what he could do. Go Go and Fred had finished up their initial search and were flanked next to him, turning up nothing. Baymax's charge port had a few cables poking out of it, currently attached to said dish on the roof.

"The police are just running around like chickens with their heads cut off," Go Go said, rotating around the group. "And so are we. We need to come up with something and fast. We don't know how long Bullseye is going to stay patient."

"I'm trying, Go Go," Hiro said through gritted teeth. "But your attitude is not helping."

"Fred, is my attitude the problem here?"

"Do you want me to answer that honestly?"

"No."

"Then yes."

One of the panels to the roof flew open, and up popped Wasabi, out of breath and panting. "We couldn't meet up somewhere lower to the ground?"

"Did you find anything at Lester's house?"

Wasabi glared at Hiro's interjection, but didn't rise up at him. "Not some thing. Some one. Lester had one of the officers bound and held captive there."

"What?" Wasabi now had Hiro's attention. "Who was it?"

"Simmons. He was hidden down in the basement. He's a little dehydrated, but he'll be fine." Wasabi bent down to close the hatch. "He said that a couple of the other officers were brought there as well, but Lester eventually took them all out. Overheard him say he needed a bigger place to hide them."

Go Go growled under her breath. "Cruz did mention that a lot of the officers haven't been showing up for work. He's been bleeding the force dry over the past few days."

"That's what happened the last time."

The others turned to see the last member of the group come up over the edge, landing with her chemball boots.

"Honey Lemon, where have you been? We've been calling you nonstop!" Go Go yelled. "And what do you mean by 'the last time'?"

"This happened in Neo York as well."

Another shadow came up right next to Honey Lemon, the purple armor sleeve and bow giving her away immediately.

"It wasn't as severe, but when I was discharged, my precinct had lost about twenty percent of the officers due to illness. They all came back eventually, but I was already gone before I could learn anything else."

Bishop adjusted her glasses to the deafening silence of the team. Hiro's eyes started seeing red, and he put his phone away before focusing his attention on the Latina.

"Why did you bring her here?"

"Listen, kiddo, I came with her on my own free will. She explained to me what was going on. And I'm here to clean up my mess."

"You call this a mess? Megan's kidnapped, and all you can call that is a _mess_?"

"Hiro..."

"No." Bishop held up her hand. "He's mad. I get it. I haven't exactly been the most welcoming person to you. Or anyone, really." She stuck her bow onto her back and stepped forward. "And I'm not looking to walk off into the sunset with you guys. We're not friends. I don't imagine a situation where we can be."

She glanced at Honey Lemon before continuing.

"But this piece of filth needs to go down. And I can help you do that."

Bishop pulled out an arrow and rotated it, the tip shining in the night.

"All that I ask is that you let me finish this."

"Oooh! Whatever could she mean? I wonder if-"

Baymax stuffed his finger into the mouth of Fred's costume, cutting him off.

Hiro walked up to her, barely containing his anger. "We aren't going to let you kill someone, if that's what you mean. We're superheroes. We don't kill. We're going to bring him in and make him pay for everything that he's done to the police, to Cruz...and to you."

His fists were so tight they were in danger of tearing through his gloves.

"Because it's not about being selfish. We want him gone just as much as you. But we're going to do it the right way. Not _your_ way. _Our_ way. Do you understand?"

Bishop lowered her glasses, and there were her eyes again, staring him down. But it wasn't with suspicion this time. It was of...something else. He couldn't figure it out.

"Yeah. I do."

"Good." He handed his phone over to her. "Then maybe you can help by trying to figure out what this is. It looks like a symbol, but I don't recognize it at all. Maybe it's-"

"Aim."

"What?"

"It's aim."

"What does that word have to do with it?" Wasabi asked.

"No, not the word. It's the emblem of a company, A.I.M. Advanced Idea Mechanics. See?" She pointed at the black circles in the background. "See how the outer one is only a half-circle? That's their symbol."

"And how do you know that?" added Go Go.

"Trust me, I've stared at that symbol for the better part of five years. I practically see it in my sleep." Bishop tossed the phone back to him. "The company had no idea that their headquarters was being used as a firearms front, so they closed down the whole building because of the public outcry. But he's not in Neo York. Unless he can somehow build a portal and go there."

" _I have completed my search."_

Hiro saw Baymax with a finger in the air. "I...didn't ask you to do one."

"I did." Honey Lemon was finished poking at his belly. "And here's what I found."

* * *

" _After the Neo York operation went down, A.I.M. wanted to make a new headquarters. So they put in bids in a lot of major cites: D.C., Riorleans, Chicathens, even in Los Vegos. None of them wanted to be associated with that sort of criminality. Only one city had agreed to let them build, but they put in place a tone of restrictions."_

_"Let me take a wild guess. San Fransokyo?"_

_"Yeah. But the project's been in development hell ever since the first foundation went down. I can't understand all of the legalese, but the long of it is that the construction has been halted ever since a couple of months ago."_

" _He has to be there. And maybe the other officers, too."_

_"Then that's where we're going. We have to rescue everyone."_

" _And take Bullseye down."_

 _"The_ _**right** _ _way."_

" _Yeah, whatever you say, kiddo."_

_"Less talking and more dramatic flying away!"_

Baymax landed right near the edge of the giant construction site. The team plus Kate piled off, one of them a little more quickly than the others.

"I take it that flying's not your thing."

Kate came out from behind the tree, wiping her mouth. "No, traveling at high speeds in the air is definitely not my _thing_."

Hiro focused his attention back onto the site. It had been an awkward trip over here, and much more so with someone that had been actively trying to hunt you down hugging your waist.

Not to mention the airsickness part.

But he had to focus. Lives were on the line. He looked up at his robot, not even bothering with his codename. "Baymax, can you scan to see if they're here?"

His eyes went blue, rotating his head across the entirety of the site. _"My scanners are not picking up any additional people."_

"He probably has scanjammers up," Go Go said.

"Yeah, that'd make sense considering that A.I.M. were the ones that make the damn things."

Wasabi looked over at Bishop. "Really? Even with them being shut down?"

"Just because there's no building doesn't mean that there's not things going on behind the scenes. Believe me." Kate pulled out a shaft and started rummaging through her quiver. "We always suspected that the company was in on the arms deal, but never found any substantial proof. Just another unfinished part of the bust we did."

"Maybe they'll let you bring it to an end."

"Yeah. Maybe." She took a small canister and screwed it onto the shaft. "But I have something that can get around it." She tapped the arrow as she set it on her string. "Anti-scan device. It sends a small EMP that will disrupt any scanjammers in the area. It only lasts for a few seconds, and I only have one, so have your iron giant or whatever you call him ready to scan again."

" _I am ready."_

Kate let go of the string, and the arrow flew off into the far wall of the unfinished building. It hit the side and instantly a wave of blue energy went out of the end and over every surface of the wall. Hiro nodded to Baymax, who immediately resumed his scan.

"Anything?"

_"I have detected several humans on the bottom level of the structure. Almost all of them were together, with one being separated from the others."  
_

"That must be the officers and Megan. Is she on the same level?"

_"I believe so, however my scanning capabilities have returned to being ineffective."_

"Well, we'll worry about that, later. Let's go."

The others nodded. Fred grabbed Wasabi (with some resistance from the swordsman) and jumped off. Go Go did the same with Honey Lemon. Bishop was just about to start after them when Hiro stepped in front of her.

"Wait."

As hectic as his brain was moving to help Megan, he had to get something out first. And that involved him being away from the rest of the group.

"Thank you. For helping us. I don't know what Honey Lemon said to you, but-"

"Save it, kiddo."

Kate already was shaking her head. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this to correct a mistake I made long ago. You guys just got yourselves involved. This doesn't change anything. I'm still planning to take you in when I get a chance. You just earned a reprieve, that's all."

"Officer Bishop…"

" _We found something, Hiro. You might want to come help us."  
_

"Coming." Hiro climbed back up onto Baymax and motioned to Bishop. "Hop on."

"I'd rather walk, thanks. I-Hey!"

Baymax had grabbed her and nestled her body into his arms. _"Are you comfortable?"_

"No," she said into her elbow.

" _On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your-"_

"Just drive, kiddo."

* * *

The next thing that she saw was the entryway to a worn down room. It looked like it was suppose to be some sort of office space, but the lack of furniture made it eerie and unwelcoming. Baymax stepped through the door, Hiro and Bishop closely behind.

"Whoa."

He couldn't help himself. There had to have been a couple dozen officers all around the windowless room, most of them lying on the ground. Their clothes were disheveled and their faces sunken. It looks like they had been there for a while. The other members of the team were doing the best they could, with each of them helping a stray officer to their feet.

"I don't see Simmons here."

"He was at Lester's house," Hiro whispered. "He's going to be fine."

"Good. Then this looks like it's everyone from the precinct. But I don't see Megan."

"I don't either. Maybe one of them knows something." He stepped forward to walk toward the nearest officer...but found out that he couldn't.

"Huh?"

He looked down and saw a long rope had become tangled around his boot. He quickly shook it to try to get it off, but it was latched on tight.

"What are you doing, kiddo?"

"Stupid rope. They must have left it here when they were doing construction."

Bishop sighed. "What would they use rope for? Other than-"

"Um."

He pointed at her shoe and Bishop saw exactly what he did: an identical piece of rope attached to her.

They both looked up at each other.

"Aww, crap."

All of a sudden, both of them were thrown off their feet and onto their faces, the rope pulling them along the floor and out the door.

"Guys!"

He heard Honey Lemon shout out at them, but it was already too late. They were halfway down the corridor and being dragged around corners so fast that he had no way to focus. He heard Kate struggling somewhere behind him. He knew he would be fine with his armor. Bishop, however, was a different story.

He got yanked around the final corner, and Hiro saw that the rope was leading up a narrow stairwell. He quickly brought up his glove and shot out a Mini-Magnet, hitting the railing. A long, metallic tendril went from his glove to the magnet, connecting the two together.

Hiro was lifted off the ground and had started up the stairwell before his body stopped. The magnet had held true, but it almost tore his arm off. The rope was still struggling to pull him upward.

"Ahhhh!"

Bishop's body went screaming past him, and he threw out his other hand to try to grab her. He managed to get her wrist, also pulling her to a stop, but now his arm was begging for mercy.

"Thanks for the save, kiddo," she panted.

"Don't thank me yet. My body feels like...it's going to rip in two…"

One of the poles of the railing came out of the stone, shards flying around them.

"I can't hold on…"

He looked up to try to get a better grip and saw Kate had an arrow in her spare hand. She clicked a button on the shaft, and the tip flattened into a blade. With all of her focus, she started sawing into Hiro's rope.

"What are you doing?"

"Find Megan. Get everyone out of here. Don't worry about me."

A bead of sweat hit Hiro's visor as she made her way through the final strand.

"I'll take care of the rest."

SNAP!

Hiro's body went headfirst into the concrete, the magnet deactivating. He swung his head up to try to see Bishop, but to no avail. The darkness had swallowed her up.

He slowly got to his feet, his head screaming in pain. His arm wasn't doing any favors, either. But with her last action, she had saved him from going to wherever she was. And if it was what he thought it was, there was no way he was going to be able to handle it.

He would just have to hope she would pull through.

"Hello?"

Her voice caused him to come out of his train of thought. He looked wildly around to find the source.

"Who's there?"

It wasn't that far away. Hiro only had to go down a few doorways to see the most relieving sight in the world.

Megan was lying down on an old mattress, hands and legs bound together. There was a cloth over her eyes; Bullseye hadn't even bothered to cover her mouth. It wouldn't have done her any good, anyway. Her voice was already hoarse from all of her yelling.

"Megan."

The younger Cruz gasped. "Hiro!?"

"I'm here. Don't move."

He quickly ducked back into the hallway and grabbed the knife arrow off of the ground. Reentering, he quickly made his way over to her and cut her binds, allowing her to yank the blindfold off of her.

" _Hiro!"_

She threw her arms around his neck and pulled him close, all of her composure lost. If the adrenaline hadn't already been kicking in his system, he would have felt more bones breaking. Her body was so nestled into his that he could still feel the heat even through his armor and Medi-Dex.

Her face was now back in front of him, tears pouring down it. "I can't believe it. You're actually here. I thought that…"

Megan stared into his eyes for a second longer...and then her lips pressed against his helmet visor.

They were clearly meant for his mouth, but the fact that they didn't hit wasn't enough to stop Hiro's face from going completely crimson. She must have realized it too, because a second later, she withdrew her head, mortified.

"I...um…" Mumbling, she grabbed her jacket sleeve and started wiping down the front of his helmet. "I smudged up your thing. Here, I'll just-"

His hand softly came down on hers, pushing it down to his lap.

"It...it's fine. Don't worry about it."

Her bottom lip quivered.

"Hiro, I'm…"

Her face went into his chest, and the waterworks started all over again.

"I'm so sorry! I was mad at you, and I wanted to help, so I went to the precinct and got mixed up with Kate and then her partner came back and I didn't know what was going on until he threw me into the trunk and all I could think about was the last thing I said to you which was so terrible of me and-"

"Shhh."

He put his arms around her back, patting it gingerly.

"It's fine, Megan. It's fine…"

* * *

"Ugh."

Bishop's head felt like it had gotten dragged across a mile of stone. Mostly because it had.

But she could still feel her appendages. That was something.

She opened her eyes, trying to take in her surroundings. Her lenses were scuffed to high heaven, but she could still tell that she was now on the roof. Whoever had laid that rope trap had wanted her alone.

"Glad you could join me, Kate."

Bishop jumped up to her feet, her bow already cocked back with an arrow.

"Isn't it always funny how we end up together? You just can't get rid of me, can you?"

"Gee, I wonder why," Bishop quipped. The tech in her glasses were on the fritz; she couldn't figure out where the voice was coming from. "It can't be because you've been hounding me for years, right? That's what a creep would do."

"That's one way of looking at it."

A combat boot stepped onto the roof, and she whirled around to see a man standing near her. He was wearing similar armor to her, but instead of it being purple, it was a very dark blue, stripes of white alternating on his gauntlet and sleeve. His boots also had the same white lines. His one good eye narrowed as he pulled an identical bow off of his back, the other one pure white and with scar rings around it.

"You."

The single word was uttered with so much venom that even he was taken aback. He quickly recovered, an evil smile growing on his face. "Yes. Me."

A single drop of rain hit her face.

"Sort of appropriate that we end up like this, right?"

Her answer was an arrow that he easily dodged. The response was his own, which exploded into a bolo. It hit Bishop's arm and caused it to get pinned behind her back. Kate went falling back into the ground in a heap.

"Too bad all of that wonderful police training didn't prepare you for the real world."

Kate growled at him, trying to tug at her binds with her free hand.

"Oh no. We can't have that." He picked her up by the scarf and dragged her body over to the side of the roof, pulling her head over the edge. "I don't want you to miss the main event."

She looked up to see that he had something new in his hand. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but laugh. "Really? A detonator? After all of this, you're going to blow me up?"

The man let out his own laugh, but one that was gravely and evil. "Oh, this isn't meant for you. It's meant for _them_."

Bishop turned her head, realizing too late that she was on another building...right next to the one she had entered with Big Hero 6.

"Time for the fireworks."

* * *

A large slab of stone slid over the doorway, cutting the team and the officers off from the exit.

"What the?"

A few small cubbyholes opened up in the floor, and their eyes met with the digital timers of the bombs.

" _Ohhhh no."_

Go Go swore at the top of her lungs.

" _That is an inappropriate word for this kind of situation."_

Wasabi slashed at the stone, two small indentions now in it. "I can't cut through this!"

"Everyone, get near me!" Honey Lemon aimed her cannon down to the ground. "I sure hope this works…"

* * *

A click rang through the room, and Megan lifted her head off of his chest. "Hiro? What was that?"

He _had_ known where it was coming from, and he quickly pulled her up and yanked the mattress aside. Underneath was a small box, lined with explosives and a digital timer now counting down.

"Unbelievable."

In a flash, he shot off two Mini-Magnets into the wall and extended the coils, He yanked as hard as he could to see if the wall could budge, but to no avail.

"Baymax," he whispered under his breath. "Captain Cutie. Now."

* * *

His robot's eyes, an unknown distance away, shimmered red.

" _Voice authorization complete. Increase to 100% complete."_

* * *

The Medi-Dex glowed bright purple, and Hiro pulled once more. This time, huge chunks of the wall came down, much to the amazement of his rescuee.

"Since when can you do that!?"

He didn't answer and instead grabbed her wrist, careful not to crush it with his newfound strength.

"Grab on to me!"

Her arms went around his neck, and he stepped out into the open air…

But not before the timer reached zero.

* * *

BOOOOOOM!

A catastrophic explosion rocked the entire neighboring building. Bishop felt her face burn as the wave of heat hit her. All of the rubble started collapsing inward, a giant dust cloud erupting over their heads.

"No…"

* * *

"I don't think this is going to hold!"

"I know that!"

_"The amount of stone and rubble approaching our impact point is quantifying at about-"_

_"I **don't** need to know that, Baymax!"  
_

Even at her highest pitch, Honey Lemon could barely hear her roommate's yell. She had used up a massive amount of her chemballs to make a dome around them and the officers, but the shell was already starting to crack. Baymax had Go Go's big disc up against the top and was pushing as hard as he could. Fred and Baymax were bracing both of his arms, but she knew it wasn't going to stay whole forever.

This was it. They weren't going to make it out of this one. The light was burning out fast, and she-

"Wait."

She quickly poked at four of her buttons, and the corresponding mini-balls rolled into her hand: one yellowish-green, one purplish-black, one pale blue, and the last one pure white. She took the four into her hand as she swiped over to her other screen. Go Go saw her press a button with what looked like a star symbol on it. One tiny clear ball came out, but it was glowing so bright that she almost had to look away.

"Honey Lemon, what is that?"

"Optic fiber ball to help with what I'm about to do."

"Which is what, exactly?"

"Give me your glove."

Go Go yanked it off of her, and Honey Lemon pulled it over her right hand. "I need it to protect myself."

"From what?"

The Latina looked at the four balls in her hand.

"From this."

With that, she crushed all four in her hand. Quickly, she threw the clear ball into the resulting pool of liquid, and everything started getting even bright.

"Whatever you do, Go Go, don't look into it."

"Huh?"

Honey Lemon stood up and reached her arm upward, bracing it with her other hand. "Baymax, let go!"

_"That is not advisable."_

"I said let go!"

The palm of her hand started erupting in light.

"I can do this!"

* * *

The force of the explosion had pulled Hiro away from his intended target, which was somewhere up on the hill they had arrived on. Instead, it was going to be very, _very_ far away from that.

But hey. Trees were soft, right?

He activated his boot thrusters to try to steer him toward the most comfortable looking tree, Megan screaming all the way in his ear. Maybe if he could aim for a thick branch, he could rotate his body and slow his descent…

WHAM!

Or not.

Five seconds later, Hiro was facedown in the ground again. He groaned as he flipped onto his back. Everything was hurting now.

THUMP!

...Again.

A very heavy something had landed directly on top of him. He opened his eyes to see that it was Megan, a few leaves and twigs in her hair. She stared at him through the visor, her cheeks going back to red.

"Umm...thanks for breaking my fall."

"No problem." Hiro sat up with a little help from Megan. "I think I'll just sit here and die now."

"Megan!"

She gasped, looking past Hiro's head. "Dad!"

The sounds of a helicopter whooshing came from behind him, and he turned to see it touch down. Chief Cruz was already out of it, rushing toward Megan and pulling her close.

The two Cruzes held each other close for almost a full minute before he realized that there was another person there. He quickly walked over to him and helped Hiro up. "Are you OK, Hiro?"

"To be honest…" Hiro winced as he rotated his arm. "I've been better."

* * *

"You dirtbag!"

Bishop struggled against the bolo again, but it wasn't budging. All she could do was yell.

"You just killed them all! The police! Big Hero 6! For what? For _what!?_ "

Bullseye bent down to her ear and whispered, sending a chill down her spine.

"For you, Kate."

He gestured to the now destroyed building. "I did the job for you. It took care of two problems at once: your uninspiring coworkers and the superhero team you've been chasing all this time. You should be thanking me."

Her left hand was right against her quiver. She was almost there…

"Now you have nothing left to hold you back. We can now do whatever we want, you and I. Perhaps we can-"

She dropped the blade arrow into her right hand and slashed at him with all her might. It hit his shoulder and caused him to recoil back, grasping at his new cut. Bishop slipped the blade through her binds, finally freeing her body.

"I don't want to hear you say anything else."

Bishop slowly got to her feet. She brought her foot down, kicking her bow back up into her hand.

"Bullseye, you're going to pay for what you just did."

She took two arrows and notched them onto her string.

"I'm going to kill you."

She realized that the man wasn't paying attention to her any longer. Instead, his focus was behind her. Now that she wasn't blinded with rage, it did seem like someone had turned on a spotlight. She turned her head…

"Holy-"

* * *

Megan, Chief Cruz, and Hiro suddenly felt the ground quake. Jolted out of their reunion, three pairs of eyes went to the remnants of the A.I.M. building to see a giant pillar of light erupting from the wreckage.

"Holy mother of pearl," Megan whispered.

"Yeah," Hiro said simply. "It's definitely called one of those two things…"

* * *

The light finally dissipated, and Go Go brought her arm down from guarding her eyes. Even with the tinted visor and her body blocking the light, it still felt like her eyes had to take a minute to adjust back to the night.

She wasn't dead. That was a plus.

The bubble shield had shattered, but not because of the rubble. No, it was because of the giant whatever the crap Honey Lemon had shot off into the sky.

"Hey."

Go Go saw her roommate kneeling in front of everyone, her right arm twitching uncontrollably. She dragged herself over to the Latina and touched her arm. It felt...tingly?

"That was the _coolest thing I've ever seen!_ " Fred yelled. "Or maybe didn't see. Are you guys still there?"

The Korean swiped back to the periodic table, noting what elements she had used last. It didn't take a chemical engineer to figure out what she had done.

"Did...did you just conjure up a chemical laser?"

Through her heavy pants, Honey Lemon cracked a smile. "Yeah. I needed...the optical fiber ball to...focus it." She stared at the ground. "How'd I do?"

Go Go pulled her into a hug, setting her head on her shoulder. "Girl...I've never been so proud of you."

She patted her head.

"And _so_ scared of you at the same time."

Wasabi laughed from behind them. Baymax and Fred were over them now, Fred waving his arms erratically to try to get his bearings.

"Whoa!"

And tripped over one of the rookies.

"Sorry."

A smaller explosion went off high above them, and they turned to the next building to see that there was a fight still raging on up top. Go Go helped Honey Lemon to her feet. "Are you going to be good?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine."

She steeled her face into a look of pure concentration.

"Let's end this."

* * *

Kate had used the temporary shining to launch a ferocious attack on her adversary. But he had recovered quickly, and every arrow she shot was countered with one of his own. A few minutes passed before she realized that she was not going to be able to win this way.

So it was time for the direct approach.

Her left fist slammed into his face, the close contact not expected. He stumbled back a few feet before Kate closed the distance again, this time sending a foot into his gut.

"That's more like it. Let the anger out!" he yelled. "Let it all out!"

Bishop's other fist came forward, but Bullseye was ready this time; he swiped the fist off to the side and pulled something out from his side.

She didn't see the pistol crossbow until the bolt went into her side.

"Gah!"

Bishop stopped cold, and he took the moment to kick her down to the ground. She tried to get up, but his foot came down on her hand, grinding it into the stone.

"That...that's against the rules," she spat out.

"Heh." He had another bolt ready to go, the crossbow now aimed at her head. "Unfortunately for you, Kate...I don't play by the rules."

THUNK!

A metal disc clanged into the bow, sending it skittering off to the side. It was quickly followed up by a ball of fire, a plasma blast, and what looked like a pink orb of goo. He dodged the first two, but not the third. Instead of throwing sticky chemicals onto him, the orb rapidly grew like a balloon until it popped, the man flying backward.

"Yeah...we don't either."

Bishop felt Honey Lemon's hands go under her shoulders, helping her up off of the roof. She also felt another sharp tick of pain as she yanked out the bolt, quickly throwing some sort of substance onto her wound.

"You guys aren't dead."

The Latina chuckled as she finished spreading the antiseptic cream on her body. "Disappointed?"

"Do I have to answer that?"

" _Rah!"_

Bullseye yelled from the other side of the roof, plucking his bow off of the ground. The rest of the team gathered to the side of Honey Lemon and Bishop, weapons ready.

"Are you up for this, Kate?" Honey Lemon whispered. "You're injured. We can handle this."

"No. I'm doing this." She slowly pulled out an arrow, twirling it between her fingers. "I...I _have_ to do this."

"Suit yourself." Go Go's wheels started spinning on her wrists.

"Officer Bishop, remember. We're bringing him in alive."

She didn't respond to the boy genius, only tightening her grip on the string.

Honey Lemon's hand came down on her shoulder. "Kate. All of this can be fixed. We'll put in a good word for you. Make everyone know that you're not at fault. But we _have_ to keep him alive."

"Yes, Kate. Keep me alive."

The team readied up as Bullseye stood up and armed himself, wide grin creasing his cheeks. "And then I'll get out again and find you. No matter where you are, I'll _always_ find you. You can't get rid of me."

"Remember the good old days when supervillain banter was good?"

"You mean a week ago? No, Fred. I don't. Maybe you could enlighten us?"

"Well, Steamer had a pretty good one-liner back when we fought him at the train station-"

"I'm pretty sure Wasabi's question was rhetorical, numbskull."

" _Hiro wishes for everyone to focus. The villain is approaching."  
_

"Thanks, Baymax," Hiro said from his back. He tightened his muscles, the last of the power reserves of the Medi-Dex glowing under his armor.

"Big Hero 6!"

Go Go got into a boxer's stance, her wheels still spinning erratically. Wasabi withdrew his blade on one hand, the plasma blaster ready on the other. Fred's mouth started lighting up with another plume of fire. Baymax extended his fist, the mini-rockets activated. Both Honey Lemon and Bishop raised their purse and bow, ammo ready to fire.

"...Take him down."

The chemball and the arrow were the first to fly, but Bullseye leapt right over them, returning fire with his own. However, Go Go's disc made quick work of that. Undeterred, he threw down some smoke pellets, and they instantly started puffing out a thick gas.

"Oh no, you don't!"

Fred leapt down directly into the cloud, his impact dissipating the smoke. He looked around wildly, but couldn't find the villain.

But he found him, because Bullseye had launched himself into the air as well, landing right on Fred's head. He started stabbing right through the metal with an arrow, Fred screaming like a girl as he dodged left and right, the arrowhead barely missing his body.

Wasabi's plasma blast hit his hand to send the arrow away. He slashed right at the villain, who brought out his own knife to block the blade.

"You're not the only one with tricks, Big Hero 6," he cackled. "I have everything I need to counter your toys."

A bright energy coil came out of the smoke and wrapped around his wrist. Surprised, he turned at Hiro, whose hand was clenched around his end.

"How about this one?"

He pulled as hard as he could. He wasn't at 100%, but it was enough to send Bullseye toward him…

Right toward the awaiting fist of Bishop.

The contact sent him sprawling out a few feet away. Growling, he stood back up to see the two fists rocketing in his direction. He smiled and stood still, ready for them to go on either side of him.

And then the magnets activated on the top and connected together. The makeshift rope went around the man, causing the fists to wrap around his body, smacking their fingers right in front of him.

The shockwave was enough to throw him off-balance again. His bow clattered away as his body rammed into the side of the building. Now completely unhinged, Bullseye looked up to see all seven people walking toward him.

"I'd stay down, if I were you," Kate advised.

"Heh. I don't give up that easily." He threw an arrow up into the air, and the shaft erupted light, temporarily blinding the team.

"Guys, get your bearings!" Hiro yelled. "We can't let him-Ah!"

He was lucky that the arrow had barely missed his arm; he wasn't sure how much more injury he could take tonight. He heard the others cry out in pain as well, but couldn't do anything about it. He had to get his eyes adjusted, or else-

A foot landed into his stomach, sending him off Baymax. He crashed in a heap on the roof with the wind knocked out of him.

He finally got his sight back, and he saw the others around him, groaning. He looked up at their attacker…

"Oh no."

Bullseye hadn't taken care of everyone. He actually had one of them right by his side, his arm wrapped around her body...and the crossbow aimed right at her head. Opposite of him and still standing was Kate, the last of her arrows ready to fly.

"Guys?"

Honey Lemon tried to wriggle out of Bullseye's grip, but to no avail. Hiro quickly got up and readied himself; the others seemed to have recovered as well and glared at him across the roof.

"Go ahead, Kate. If you think you're so good...then stop me. If you don't, you're going to let this girl perish on your hands." He pressed the business end of the crossbow a little closer to her helmet. "But that's what you want, isn't it? For Big Hero 6 to not exist any more. Quite the conundrum you're under right now."

Hiro saw Bishop's grip on her bow tighten.

"Last time I'm going to offer this, Kate. We can come together. Take them down. Bring them in. You'll be hailed as the hero that brought Big Hero 6 to justice. They'll be talking about you forever."

"Kate…"

Honey Lemon's struggled against her captive, but her arms were pined down, unable to reach for anything from her purse. That didn't stop her from talking, though.

"Don't listen to him. You're going to do the right thing. I know you will."

"Really? That's all you got, little girl?" Bullseye laughed. "You're going to appeal to her honor? What honor? _She has no honor!_ What makes you think she'll do that?"

The Latina gritted her teeth and stared directly at Kate.

"...Because I trust her."

There was a pause where nobody moved. Nobody said anything. The team were waiting for what he was going to say.

And Bullseye didn't disappoint.

"Ha! What a naive little girl you are. All she wants is recognition. Power! Popularity! She wants everyone to kneel at her feet! She wants-"

Kate saw him relax the trigger finger for a millisecond. And that's all she needed.

The arrow flew true, screaming through the air until it hit her target.

The back of his hand.

"Ahhh!"

Honey Lemon threw her head back, the helmet slamming right into his face. He teetered back and grabbed his now-broken nose. "You little-"

His eyes went up to see a small pink orb now coming up from below. It almost seemed to move in slow motion, and glow with an eerie black light. It also distracted him from all of the other projectiles being pulled straight toward it.

A rocket fist.

A small purple disc.

A larger yellow one.

A green plasma missile.

One fire ball and one ice ball.

And an arrow.

All converging toward the orb, as if gravity itself didn't matter.

The resulting explosion caked the entire roof with smoke and threw Honey Lemon back, but she landed against Bishop's legs and arms, bracing her landing. The other waited to see what the damage was, the smoke still not letting up.

As if gifting them with the answer, the rain started to fall, and the wind blew the smoke away...leaving them alone on the roof.

"Did we win?"

"I'm not sure," Hiro said. "No one could still be standing from that."

"Yeah, well…" Bishop answered. "You'd be wrong."

She pointed across from them, and Hiro saw something unbelievable: Bullseye's hand clasping the edge of the roof. He was pulling himself back up, several new scars and burns on his body.

"That was actually really clever of you."

He threw his other arm onto the roof, grunting and panting. "I have to give you credit. I didn't think I had it in you, Kate."

Bishop started walking toward him, the very last arrow in her quiver being pulled out.

And it was trained directly at his head.

"Kate!" Honey Lemon yelled.

But none of them were in a position to do anything. All of their energy had been drained. Hiro wasn't even sure how she was still able to walk.

The officer stopped right at his hand, her face not registering anything. The man below here had the grin back as he stared the tip down. "That's it, Kate. Get rid of me. Take me out. You know this is the only way it's going to end." His hand slid on the stone, the rain now making the surface slick. "Better hurry. My fingers are slipping."

Hiro waited a long few seconds to see what Bishop would do. She could easily put him away right now. No one would be able to stop her. And just like before, the bow was twitching uncontrollably, but not because of a hostage situation.

Finally, Bishop took the arrow out of the bow, lowering it away.

"I'm not going to kill you, Bullseye."

Hiro sighed.

The arrow moved too fast for him to follow, her fist slamming it down into the top of his other hand.

Bullseye yelled out loud, the sound reverberating through the clouds. He glared up at Bishop, whose mouth was breaking into a small grin.

"But I'm sure as hell not going to save you, either."

Red and blue lights swirled around the edge of the forest, signifying the arrival of the full police force. Bishop stood up to her full height, her bow on her back.

The villain started laughing again, but it was more crazed than ever before.

"Hahahahaha!"

"What's so funny?" Bishop said.

"Oh, you'll see, Kate," he retorted. "You'll see eventually."

And then he let go, wrenching both arrows out of his hands and throwing them at Bishop.

She had just enough time to dodge out of the way, but both tips hit the hinges of her glasses, causing them to shatter instantly. The tossing of the arrows also caused him to no longer have a grip on the roof, and he started falling to the ground below.

Bishop put a hand on her face, the scratches drawing blood. She peered over the edge of the roof, the villain now falling in slow motion. The sound of his laughter was still in her ears.

A motion from her right came, and Honey Lemon had her purse out in cannon mode. It sounded like she was yelling something as well, but the ringing in Bishop's ears muffled anything she was saying. Two chemballs shot out of the end, sending them screaming at Bullseye. Her aim was true, the orbs hitting them square in the chest and expanding to form a ball of goo around him, the intent to brace his fall.

And it did...right on the hood of the closest police car.

Bullseye struggled against his prison as Chief Cruz and several others ran up to him, weapons drawn. He was still laughing, his brain finally snapping out of control.

"She actually did it! She was going to save me! After everything I did for her!"

Cruz wasn't sure what to make of his rambling. He instead kept his gun trained on him…

Another object came down and hit the villain square in the eye with the scars. Bullseye yelled out in pain, the sound even higher than the sirens of the cars. Cruz looked at what had landed in it.

It was a crossbow bolt.

Ignoring the maniac's crazed chuckling, he saw someone still on the roof. He couldn't quite make out who it was due to the rain, but he did see they were holding something in their hand. If he had glanced just a little closer, he would have seen the pistol crossbow in the hands of-

"Kate?"

She let go of the weapon, letting it fall to the ground.

"You…meant to miss him, right? You didn't mean to hit him there...did you?"

Bishop looked up at Honey Lemon, who was staring at her with pained eyes. The adrenaline was winding down in her system. The pain was beginning to be too much.

And not just the physical pain.

"I was aiming for his brain."

She turned on the spot and limped away.

"Looks like I missed."

The archer didn't even look in Hiro's direction as she stepped to the edge of the roof, pulling a rope out of the bottom of her quiver.

"I held up my end of the bargain, kiddo. You better hold up yours."

With that, she lowered herself into the night, leaving a battered and tired Big Hero 6 by themselves on the roof.

* * *

_A few minutes (and miles) later…_

The rain was coming down extra hard as Bishop leapt to the next roof. She had to get back to her house and patch herself up. The loss of blood was getting to her.

But she had done it. She had taken out Bullseye with the help of Big Hero 6. She hadn't imagined that on the list of things she would do today, but that also didn't include getting suspended from the force either.

"One thing at a time, Kate," she said to herself. "Go home. Rest up. You can-"

Her foot slipped off the edge of the roof because of the rain, and she went spiraling down into the mud below.

Bishop spat out a large wad of dirt. Great. Just what she needed. More pain. She was starting to see double from all of her injuries. She had to rest, even just for a moment. She dragged herself under a tree, the branches providing a small respite from the weather.

Her hand came down on the wound Honey Lemon had fixed. All of the action had stopped the cream from working properly, and a thin layer of blood was now starting to leak again. She was pretty sure her wrist was sprained as well. She closed her eyes, ready to take a nice long nap.

"Bishop?"

She knew the voice immediately. She reflexively kicked her foot out, hitting the hand of the person that had surprised her. Leaping to her feet, she plucked the weapon out of the air and pointed it at the newcomer.

Only to see an identical side piece trained right back at her.

The two faced off, the rain now coming down even harder. Kate watched the droplets fall down his face and run over his chin, the goatee darker from the moisture. His eyes, even in his older age, were sharp as ever in his staredown.

"How did you find me, Chief?"

Cruz slowly unhinged the safety on his backup weapon, not looking away. "I don't need fancy tech to follow you, Bishop. I've been behind you as soon as you left the construction site."

Bishop touched her eyebrow. Right, she had lost her glasses in the fight. So much for the secret identity.

"You need to come with me. You're hurt badly. I have a fresh uniform in the car. I can take you back to the precinct and no one will be any the wiser."

"Oh, save me the sermon. I already know what you were going to do."

His hands didn't move.

"What do you think I was going to do, Bishop?"

"Sell me out."

He tilted his head to the side.

"You were going to _sell me out!_ " She jabbed the weapon at him. "You were going to give me up to Bullseye. The girl told me. And for what? A trade for Megan? I thought you didn't negotiate with criminals!"

"Kate…"

He took a small step forward.

"I wasn't going to sell you out. I don't know what you were told, but I had a plan. Yes, it involved finding you, but I wasn't going to trade you for her."

"And that thought _never_ crossed your mind?"

Even in the torrential downpour, the silence from Cruz was deafening.

"You are a piece of work, Chief."

"Kate." Another small step. The barrel was almost touching hers. "You know that I would do anything for my daughter."

"Including giving up one of your own officers?"

He had no response to that, which only made Bishop even madder. But she was in a pickle. She was out of energy, out of time. Even if she managed to get away from Cruz, that would only complicate things further. Injuring the head of the police was something she didn't need on top of everything else.

"You're right, Kate. About what you said before."

"Hm?"

"I don't negotiate with criminals."

He pointed his gun into the ground.

"But I will with you."

She lowered hers as well, flabbergasted.

"You have thirty seconds to get out of here. Go home. No one's there since we got the call about the construction site. Get yourself together." Cruz stared her down. "If you don't...I'm going to arrest you for what you did tonight. I'm going to take you in."

"And if I don't want that?"

"...Then you're going to have to shoot me."

He brought up the gun again, the barrel glowing with energy.

"Kate. Do the right thing. Get out of here. I really don't want anyone else to get hurt tonight."

She stood still, and Cruz wasn't sure she had heard him. But after a long moment, she finally pulled up her weapon. She pressed the button on the side, letting the magazine fall to the ground. The gun also slipped, landing right next to it in the mud.

"It's a little late for that, Chief."

She turned and walked into the darkness, Cruz's weapon still on her until he couldn't hear her any longer. Cruz let out a heavy sigh of relief, putting his weapon in the holster on his back.

"Diego!"

A second cruiser rolled up, and Detective Kato stepped out, his weapon drawn. He saw Cruz's expression and ran up to him. "Are you OK? Did you find that woman you saw from earlier?"

He didn't answer right away, instead choosing to stare at the weapon in the mud. The magazine had tilted over onto its side, the water washing away the dirt.

And the blood.

"I must have lost her. I thought I saw her here...but she's gone."

"That was some shot, though," Kato said. "Hitting him in the eye from that distance. She must have been trained well to pull that off."

Cruz slowly grabbed his gun and magazine, all of the stains completely gone from it. He pushed the magazine back inside the handle, returning it to his side.

"Come on, John. Let's get out of here. We got a lot of work to do before we can call it a night…"

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Remember a while ago when I said I was going to be flirting with the T rating?

Yeah. This is about as close as I'm going to get without outright making it an M. Kate has a way of doing that to me. :P

Also, I wonder which one Honey Lemon is going to go with. Holy or Pearl? Guess it's her choice.

We have a lot to wrap up in the final chapter. Kate's status with the police, Hiro and Megan, and Cruz's mindset about his policies from the past. Because you didn't really think it was going to be as simple as what happened in "Legacies", did you? Leopards can't change their spots, ladies and gentlemen. And my opinion is that the show didn't do as good a job as it could have in explaining that.

Oh, and we're also going to get a special visit from two people in the finale chapter. One is part of a pairing that I may not have given enough attention in this story.

And may have also been pulled out of SFIT by her parents.

The other?

The first one.

The first what, you may ask?

...The first archer.

The finale, "Upshot", should be up next week. As always, read and review, if you like. Until next time, everyone.


	7. Upshot (Finale)

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6: The Series is owned by Disney Animation. All cameos and appearances are also not owned by me._

_Now, here's to hoping I don't miss._

* * *

_**Chapter 7 - Upshot (Finale)** _

At the ripe old age of twenty-three, Kate Bishop had experienced quite a lot in her life.

The past week was easily the highlight of it.

Lowlight?

Who knows? Her head was still pounding from staying in her home for a few days.

"You always did tell me I would become an alcoholic early, Mom," she muttered as she stepped off of the bus. "Too bad I got those genes from you."

Kate looked up at the roof of the police department. This was suppose to be her new start, but all it ended up being was a disaster. At least the matter of Bullseye had been dealt with...

That just left everything else.

She sighed and put her hand on the door. "Well, here goes."

Kate pushed the door open and entered the lobby. She had to push her sunglasses back onto her head; unlike her others, there were just a normal pair. She looked around her, taking note of the other people walking around. _This is good,_ she thought. _No one giving me the stink-eye._

In no time at all, she found herself at the door to the offices. She took a second to adjust herself and look down at her phone. She wasn't going to be late this time; she was going to be right on schedule.

Right at the turn of the hour, she walked in. For the first time in a while, all of the desks were occupied with officers. Most of them were the rookies, rummaging through various amounts of paperwork. At the sound of the door opening, a few of the people looked up with surprise on their faces.

_Well. **That's** not good._

No one said anything to her as she sauntered up to her desk, but the noise level did start to pick back up. She set her thermos down and started on her own pile...

"Kate?"

She glanced up to see one of the rookies standing in front of her. "Ben. What's up?"

"The chief wants to see you. He told me to come get you as soon as you got in."

"Oh." Great, already in trouble, and she had been there for about twelve seconds. "OK. Let him know I'll be there in a minute. I want to finish this-"

"He...kind of wants to see you immediately."

Kate growled under her breath. No use shooting the messenger. "Fine." She downed the last of her coffee before getting up from her chair. Ben tiptoed out of the way so that she could walk between the desks. "Let's get this over with."

The first thing she saw when looking in the office was Cruz, his head bowed down looking over some documents. As soon as she knocked, he glanced up from it.

"You wanted to see me, Chief?"

"Close the door."

She did, and took her spot across from him. Cruz pushed all of it to the side and ran his fingers through his graying hair. "How are you holding up?"

"In terms of my body, or my mind?"

"Both."

Kate tapped her temples. "Well, my arm is no longer busted. Still a little sore, though. Ankle's weak, but I'll live. Still have a giant migraine from staring at a giant flashlight that girl shot out, but other than that, I'm good."

"Are you, though?"

She sighed through her nose. She didn't like where this was going. "Sir, I know that you got everyone back from being kidnapped, and that's great. I can help with their-"

"I'm worried about you, Bishop."

He pushed one of the papers in front of her.

"And it's not just me."

Kate peered down at the letterhead. It had a lot of official names on it, none of them she recognized. But the official seal of the SFPD was enough for her to get the hint.

"The mayor and the city board sent me this last night. They read over the suspension paperwork I sent them, and they're quite concerned about whether you're fit to continue being here."

"You're kidding."

"I'm not." He took the paper back and set it on his pile. "And frankly, I can't argue with them. You went on your own to conduct an illegal investigation into the identities of Big Hero 6. You took materials and evidence from the crime lab. You interviewed college students and a minor without any representation present. That _alone_ would be enough for a termination."

He leaned forward and clasped his hands. "And that's not even counting all of this vigilante stuff. You tried to hunt Big Hero 6 down and bring them in, even with the official decree that I had stating that they weren't to be touched. Your actions caused several people injury."

"Chief, that wasn't me. That was Bullseye."

"Yeah, and currently he's in the psych wing of San Fransokyo Penitentiary, and he's not exactly in the right mind to corroborate anything you're saying. He _is_ saying your name. A lot. Like over and over again. And the higher-ups have taken notice."

Kate stared at him. "They can't prove that I was his accomplice."

"You're right," Chief Cruz said. "They can't. But what they _can_ do...is open an investigation. Into _you_."

Her heart started beating a little quicker.

"I've been lucky enough to make a few friends over at the District Attorney's Office. They sent me an e-mail this morning as a heads-up. And in approximately..." He pushed a button on his keyboard. "Thirty minutes? The DA is going to walk into this room with their personal investigators and issue a warrant for your arrest."

She blinked.

"They are going to open every door to your past, turn over every rock from your time in Neo York, and read every little thing about you, your life, and everything in between. They're gonna know you better than you know yourself. And you may think you're good, and you are...but you're also young. Inexperienced. They'll prey on that. They're going to tear you apart."

Chief Cruz sighed deeply.

"And they're going to find out about you and your archer self before you can even do anything about it."

Kate's foot started tapping against the floor.

"I'm gonna be honest, Bishop. Bringing you on was a risk. It was one that not a lot of people agreed with, considering your past. A lot of people don't like you. You burned a lot of bridges when you got dismissed from Neo York. They don't like your attitude. They don't like your roundabout way of doing things. You are the kind of person that they don't want on this force. It's what they've been trying to clean up since I've arrived in San Fransokyo."

Kate stared down at the floor, her fingers grazing the bandage on her cheek.

"But..."

She looked back up at him, another piece of paper now in his hands.

"My personal feelings about your conduct aside, you helped save my daughter's life. And as much I hate superheroes, and especially ones that think themselves above the law...I owe you one."

He put the paper down on the desk in front of her. "So...this is your 'one'."

She looked down to see a couple of written-up letters, also with the SFPD seal on it. But the main difference was her name on the bottom typed out, and a signature line waiting for her handwriting.

"These are resignation papers."

"They are."

"Chief, if you think for a second that I'm going to be pressured into this-"

"Bishop, just stop."

Cruz cut her off, and Kate was all ready to start yelling at the top of her lungs again. But she took a look at his face and stopped herself. It had defeat written all over it.

"You're not going to be able to fight this. You have a whole slew of charges going against you." He started ticking off fingers. "Insubordination. Assault. Disobeying a direct order of a superior. And that's not including whatever else they want to throw at you. You're not only looking at a dishonorable discharge, but also a lot of jail time. You're never going to be able to work for this precinct, or _any_ line of law enforcement ever again."

Cruz pointed down at the pile. "You sign these papers, and you put whatever reason you want. Family problems, dog died, your mom fell down a well. I don't really care. Whatever you tell me, I will go along with. Once they see that you're gone, they'll get off my back and yours. Your record will be kept intact. And more importantly to you...your secret identity as a vigilante that helped Big Hero 6 will stay that way."

Kate looked long and hard at the writing in front of her. She knew what was coming after this, but she had to ask anyway.

"And if I don't?"

Cruz folded his arms on his desk and looked her over. "If you don't? Then I can't protect you. They'll show up and arrest you even before the coffee gets poured. After that, it's out of my hands."

The ringing in her ears was picking up. The letters seemed to dance around on the paper.

"Bishop, you have your whole life ahead of you. You're twenty-three. You're still young. I don't want you to ruin the rest of your life, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to either."

"So I don't _really_ have a choice, do I?" she whispered.

"There's always a choice, Bishop." He slid the pen across the desk, stopping it right next to her hand.

"Sometimes it's just already made for you."

Kate stared at her boss for a long time. There were so many things that she could do with that pen, including putting it in a few places where the sun would never shine on it.

But against her morbid thoughts, she plucked it off of the table, and without breaking eye contact, started putting her signature down everywhere it was needed. Once she was done, she stood up and unclipped her weapon from her waist, setting it on the desk.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way, Kate. I really am."

Her badge was placed next to her gun, the glare from the sunrise cascading on it.

"No, you're not."

The chief tilted his head, his eyebrow raised.

"You see, sir, I've been thinking a lot about what's happened. And I've come to a conclusion."

Her fingers closed around the pen.

"You think you're a hero. Trying to clean up the city. The precinct. Going after everyone at full steam, not caring about the consequences. Guess what? You're not."

Kate brought the pen up to her eyes, examining it closely.

"You know who is?"

Without a warning, she threw her arm to the side, the pen thrown over to the corkboard. It embedded into one of the superhero team's photographs, right in the center.

"Them."

She pointed to the other photos circling the youngest one's. "They're the real heroes, Chief. I see that now. You call them kids, but they have more spine and grit than half the cops in this squad. They've done a lot for this city, and they've asked for nothing in return. I saw that firsthand when we went to save your daughter. They've been doing it before you and I got here...and they'll be here long either of us are gone."

She got up from her chair, ready to walk out. "And if you can't see that by now, then maybe I _don't_ belong in your perfect little fantasy world you're trying to make."

"It's better than them trying to do our job."

Kate's eyes went wide, a sudden thought bubbling in her mind.

"That big speech you made before I got here? The one about you being sorry for trying to hunt them down? That was all crap, wasn't it?"

There was no response from across the desk.

"And these." She pointed with her thumb over at the team's pictures. "You haven't taken them down because you still plan on bringing them in. You still don't want them out there playing hero, do you?"

Now the silence was teetering on awkward.

"Chief, any time you want to say something, go right ahead."

Cruz took the resignation papers and set them off to the side. After another long moment, he focused on her.

"Bishop, you have to understand something."

"Do I?"

He ignored her. "The purpose of the police is to protect and serve the people. We cannot do that if there are people outside of our jurisdiction that are doing it for us."

She slowly pulled her hand off of the handle.

"Especially some kids who think that they know better than us."

She couldn't take her eyes off of him.

"Who haven't gone through the hardships that we have."

It finally made sense now. She was sort of angry at herself for not figuring it out sooner, but she could deal with that later.

"You know who they are."

Cruz had gone silent again, and that was all she needed.

"That was the reason for the sudden turnaround. It's why you've been so hesitant to do anything after that conference. You'd be basically taking those six and ripping them out of their lives. So, you're trying to figure out how to do it without looking like the bad guy."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"It bothers you that a fourteen-year-old kid is better at your job than you are."

Kate pulled the pen out of Hiro's portrait and set it down on the desk. "I've only been here for a bit, but I was able to learn a few things, especially about you. You're a good man, Chief Cruz. You're a good father. You're a good leader."

She turned back toward the door, now ready to walk out.

"But you're a pretty lousy police officer."

She threw her glasses back over her face.

"Maybe you should work on fixing _that_ before going after the people who are doing the job they didn't ask for. Just a thought."

Kate shut the door behind her, leaving Cruz alone in the office. She didn't care about what his reaction was, or whether she was out of line. He wasn't her boss any longer. Besides, he was a grown man. He was probably used to far worse.

She had never gotten the opportunity to customize her desk, so clearing it off took no time at all. She was just about to walk out when she had an idea.

He was at his desk, busy typing up an e-mail. He didn't even see her coming.

The sharp point of the pencil came down on the desk, and Ben recoiled so fast that the chair ran into Kate's legs. He looked up to see her smirking down at him.

"Thought you'd want it, Juwono." She patted his headrest as she walked off. "See you around."

It didn't take her long to get back to the lobby, the sun now completely over the horizon. Her day (and job) had ended before it even began. What was she going to do now? She looked around the lobby, taking in her surroundings one last time...

"Simmons?"

That was a person she wasn't expecting, but there he was, sitting at the welcome desk. He perked up at his name as Kate walked over. "What are you doing here, old man? I thought you retired."

"I did, but getting kidnapped by a madman gave me a renewed sense of energy. I'm pushing it back to next year." Simmons eyed the belongings in her hands. "What happened to you?"

She looked down along with him. "Bureaucracy. That's what happened."

"Tough break. Knew something was up when I came in this morning. Chief seemed more on edge than normal."

"It's fine." She shuffled the thermos to under her other arm. "Gives me more time to catch up on my sleep schedule." She picked up one of her things and slid it onto the desk. "Here. This is for your car."

Simmons grinned as he held up the tiny tree air freshener. "Aww, you shouldn't have, Bishop."

"I got no use for it. Maybe you can take advantage of it."

"True. My wife always complains about my stench when I come home from the cheese farm in Bristol."

"Wait. You mean that-"

"Of course. You don't think I have this odor just for the fun of it?" He smoothed out his uniform. "But cheese waits for no man, Bishop. That's my final advice to you."

Kate shook her head, an amused smile on her face. "You take care of yourself, Simmons."

"You too, Bishop. I'll rest easy working here..."

She was almost across the foyer when he finished his sentence.

"Know that I'll have another hero watching over us."

There was no way to hide her shock as she looked behind her at the desk. All Simmons did was wink in response. Her smile got even wider as she walked out of the building.

* * *

_Two days later..._

"Do you think this is a good idea, Hiro?"

"Not really, Honey Lemon. But it wouldn't hurt to ask, right?"

"This _is_ Kate we're talking about here."

"That is true."

" _The chances of bodily harm are considerably lower with this amount of people present."_

"That's not exactly comforting, Baymax."

Hiro was back at the beachfront, flanked by Honey Lemon and Baymax. The others were a short distance behind him. Fred had tried to buy a very large bucket of candy from one of the shops. Wasabi and Go Go, being the makeshift parents that they were, had to drag him outside against his will. Hiro had almost bought something himself, but he refrained. He didn't want the oncoming conversation to be sidetracked by his sugar consumption.

"Well, here it is."

They stopped at the storefront, Hiro seeing the public notice on the door. "Weird place to call home," Wasabi said.

"I know, but there's a reason why she's here."

"Are you sure you want to go in alone? I can come in with you."

"I'll be fine, Go Go. Just wait for my signal."

"What if she tries to come at you and fight again?" Fred waved his arms in a chopping motion. "Try to make you a pincushion?"

"Well...then don't come in after me." Hiro walked up to the door. "I'll let you know either way."

The air was thick and musty as he opened the door, the bell chiming above him. The details of the eye doctor office were coming back to him. The decal of the purple eye was on the window, a few of the letters scraped off. The counter was still off to his left, but half of it was taken down. The left and right walls had a fresh coat of white paint, sharply contrasting the dark green of the others. Someone was trying to spruce up the place.

"Oh my God."

A specific someone, to be precise.

"For the last time, we're not open yet! Don't you read the sign on the-"

A young woman walked out from the back, her hair back in a ponytail. Stopping right next to the counter, she was wiping her hands on a spare rag, a few specks of paint on her shirt.

"Huh. Fancy seeing you here, kiddo." She put the rag down in a box on the floor. "I didn't know you were following me around the city."

"I wasn't."

"How'd you find me, then? And before you say anything," she said as he pointed down to her jeans. "There's not any paint tracker or whatever your teammate used on me from last time."

Hiro chuckled. "We wanted to talk to you, so Wasabi went to your apartment, but the landlord said you had moved out. Honey Lemon had a hunch about here because it seemed like a place you would go to after your talk with her that night and...that was basically it."

"Hm." Kate moved the box from the floor to the counter and started rummaging through it. "Ever consider a career as a police officer? They could use someone like you on the force."

"I don't think they'd want me. I _just_ got back on their good side; I don't want to mess with that."

He was confident no arrows were going to be flying at him, so he waved his friends inside. They piled in (Baymax with some difficulty) and Honey Lemon was the first to speak up. "We heard from Megan that you're not with the police any more, but she was kind of light on the details. Did you get fired?"

"Sort of."

"What does _that_ mean?"

"It means that I was living on borrowed time." Kate walked by them, picking at a part of the decal on the window. "Wasn't the place for me. Especially with my past, and what happened over the past week...I was never going to work out there."

She let the silence hang for a moment before turning back around. "Speaking of that, I need to say something."

"Kate."

"Just let me talk, kiddo. OK?"

She took in a deep breath. "Listen, I owe all of you an apology. I thought that if I could do what Chief Cruz couldn't do, it would make up from what happened to me back in Neo York. I didn't think of the consequences of what I was doing. And that almost led to your friend getting hurt, plus the rest of the squad."

"It wasn't all you, Kate," Go Go piped up. "Bullseye was basically your shadow for years. I'm surprised he didn't drive you insane after all that time."

"Trust me, I thought that too. But I can't blame him for everything. I let my emotions get the best of me. And for that...I'm sorry. I'm sorry for trying to hunt you guys down. I know it doesn't really mean a lot now, but I figured I might as well say it." She glanced at Honey Lemon's arm, still wrapped in bandages. "I'm sorry I got you shot. Twice."

"It's fine," the Latina said, flattening one of them on her bicep. "You're not the one who shot me."

"Yeah, but I might as well have been. And I feel bad about that. Is Bullseye still at the prison?"

"Yuppers." Fred was taking up four of the chairs against the wall. "And he's one fruit basket short of a picnic, if you get my drift."

Go Go looked like her brain was about to explode from the combination of idioms, so Hiro took the opportunity to cut in. "I have one thing that's been bothering me, though."

"Shoot."

The entire group grimaced.

"Whoops. That was probably a bad word to pick."

Hiro let it go. He had to get it out. "How did you figure out who we were?"

Kate thought for a second, and then turned toward the boy genius.

"I didn't figure out everyone else. I figured out _you_."

She crossed her arms at the surprised gaze of everyone else. "And even then, I didn't really know for sure until your helmet broke at that warehouse. After that, it was easy to put together the pieces. When I found your fingerprint on that armor piece, I knew I had something, but your professor spooked me before I could get anything out of you. Which, by the way..." She leaned down toward him. "You're not a very good liar, kiddo. You should work on that."

"Yeah, we've been telling him that for a while."

Glaring at Wasabi's interjection was getting him nowhere. "Are you, a former member of the police, telling me that I should lie?"

"When it's the difference between a secret identity and the destruction of the city?" Kate's head was now back in her box. "Absolutely."

" _So, Officer Bishop, what will you do now that you are no longer employed with the police?"_

"Did you read the sign, big guy?"

_"I did not. Allow me a moment to do so."_

Baymax turned his head and scanned the paper on the door. It only took a second before his head came back forward.

" _Officer Bishop is renovating this place of business into an agency for private investigation."_

"You're going to become a PI?" Go Go asked.

"Mmhmm. Turns out that I already have most of the requirements down." She ticked off the fingers as she counted them down. "A few thousand hours of paid, investigative work, which I've already done with the precincts here and in Neo York. I already got fingerprinted. I finished my application packet and sent it in. I just need to wait for them to send me information about the exam, and once I pass it, that'll be it."

"Don't you have to be a certain age?"

"Eighteen. Which means that all of you could become PIs and work for me, if you want."

"I think we'll pass."

"I figured," she said to Go Go. "It's better that way, in any case. I work better on my own. I'm not good with working with a team."

Honey Lemon looked at Hiro, and he knew this was the time to ask. "You worked pretty well with us, Kate."

"Hm." She stared up at the recess lighting in the ceiling, rubbing her chin. "For that one time, yeah."

"Which got us to thinking-"

"Save it, kiddo."

"But you don't even know what I was going to ask."

"You were going to ask me to join your team, right? Some sort of recruitment strategy you got going or something?" Kate said.

"It's not like that."

She took a tape measure out of her box and pulled out the end, placing the metal part flat against the ceiling. It looked like she was deliberately not answering them, so Hiro tried a different approach. "Kate, you can help us. You're already really good. And plus, we could use someone like you on the inside with the police. You know...someone who's not the captain's daughter."

"I'm not as good of a person as you think I am."

Kate looked down from the ceiling and saw six faces staring back at her. Sighing, she unlocked the tape measure to let it respool into the container. "Let me give you a little history lesson, kiddo. It might give you a little insight as to the enigma that is Kate Bishop."

She threw the tape measure into the box. "My family is full of rich snobs that don't know anything outside of their gold-encrusted bubble. I wanted to do something different than everyone else. I didn't want to end up like them. So, I became a cop. You'd think that my parents would be so proud of their little girl going off to do something noble, but nope. They gave me just enough money to go to the academy and not much more after that."

"I've worked so hard to try to get out of my family's shadow. And because of that, I had to do everything on my own. Yeah, I know that doesn't really fly when it comes to working in a precinct, but I could manage. It wasn't until..." She trailed off.

"Your partner died."

Kate nodded. "He could have given up on me immediately, but he didn't. Took me under his wing. Taught me everything he knew. He took the time to take care of me. And he paid for that with his life. That's about the time I told myself that I'd fix things on my own. Fix _myself_ on my own."

"Kate."

She was still shaking her head, eyes on Hiro. "I appreciate the offer, kiddo. I do. But I'm too much of a mess right now. The last thing that I need is another team to focus on. I need to work on getting myself better. So...I'm going to have to hard pass on your offer."

Hiro wasn't surprised. He knew it was going to be difficult to sell her on being a part of the team. But as always, he had a back-up plan.

"At least let us help you be better."

Kate cocked her head to the side. "And how do you suppose you can do that?"

He nodded to Fred, who lightly tossed what he had carried in over to Kate's feet. Confused, she picked it up and examined it. It looked a lot like her quiver, even colored in the same purple and black, but there was a panel on the side of it with several buttons on it.

"It's a smart quiver," Hiro said, answering her silent question. "You can hold your shafts and tips separately along the side and bottom, and the keypad will let you get anything you want with a press of a button. It's sort of like what Honey Lemon has for her purse. But with this, you can carry a larger amount of arrows with you when you...do your thing."

She slung it over her shoulder and pressed two of the buttons. A second later, an arrow jutted out of the top, which Kate grasped and brought in front of her.

"Pre-loaded, of course."

"You sure it's smart to give me a bunch of sharp, pointy objects?"

"That's what I said!" Wasabi said, waving to Hiro. "But you didn't listen!"

"Oh, I'll be fine. I appreciate it. I need a new one, in any case. The last one got too busted after our fight with Bullseye." She pointed to the office in the back, where Hiro saw her tattered bag next to the desk.

"Well, they'll go well with your bow, too."

She also pointed a few inches to the right, and the entire group saw it: two halves of the wooden bow she had been using, laying in tatters next to the quiver. "I don't know if you noticed, kiddo, but I don't have a bow anymore either. That last fight did her in." She picked up the box to take it to the back. "Don't suppose you have a magic bow that you can pull out of thin air."

"Nope. Sorry. I'm not _that_ good." Hiro took two steps back and softly knocked on the window.

"But I did call in a favor."

Kate looked up to see a shadow walk toward the front door. The bell above it rang once more as they stepped in, but this time, she didn't comment about it.

The man had bright blonde hair slicked up into a peak. The short sleeved shirt was all black, save for the large stripe of purple on the shoulders and the collar. The black khaki shorts and purple shoes completed his look. He looked like a very fit man, with his large biceps stretching the edge of his sleeves. If not for the very noticeable limp and cane in his hand, he could've been lifting weights on the beach with the rest of the jocks. He lowered his sunglasses to stare at Kate with his brown eyes.

"Hey there, stranger. Long time no see."

The box that Kate was holding dropped to the floor, its contents scattering across it. Slowly, she put her own sunglasses on her forehead, not believing who she was seeing.

"...Clint?"

"Well, what do you know?" the man said, bending down to Hiro. "She _does_ remember me. I was worried for a second that-Ow ow ow!"

Her fist rammed into his shoulder several times, causing him to stumble back a bit. Kate reeled it back and held it above her head. "Clinton Francis Barton, what in the world are you doing here?"

"That's how you know she's serious, kid," he said, still talking to Hiro. "She uses the middle name. If you ever get a girl and she middle names you, run in the opposite direction."

"Clint."

"OK, OK, fine." He rubbed his shoulder as she stepped properly into the building. "The kid contacted me and said that you could use some cheering up."

"Contacted you? What are you talking about?" Kate threw out her hands and yelled for the entire block to hear. "You're suppose to be _dead!_ "

"Wait." The man turned back toward the rest of the group. "I am?"

"Yeah, you are."

"Aw, man! And I missed it?" He scratched the back of his head. "That's a bummer."

Baymax's chest lit up, and Honey Lemon poked at it to bring up some files. "Kate, we took another look at the files concerning the raid and the accident. Sara was right when she said that Clint was admitted to the hospital. But look at the handwriting on the report."

Kate peered in to see some discoloration behind the substituted writing. "Someone changed it."

"Yeah. And look who uploaded it to the digital system." A name came up next to the document name, and Kate recognized it.

"Benjamin Poindexter."

"One of your partners. Also known as one of the aliases Bullseye used."

At Kate and Clint's shocked faces, Hiro spoke up. "Kate, he edited the case file and put it in the system. Once Clint left, all he had to do was keep the two of you separated, and no one would know the truth. He didn't even bother with a death certificate, which got Detective Pezzini and I suspicious. After that, he started inserting himself into the precinct as your partner."

The blonde man held up his hand. "Wait. This Bullseye guy? He was the one that was behind the raid?"

"Yeah, and he's been following around Kate this whole time to torture her about it," Fred added in. "Sadistic stuff."

"Kate," Clint said as he stood back up. "Why didn't you try to call me? Write me? Something?"

"Clint, I thought you were dead. How am I suppose to contact a dead person?"

"Seance?"

Go Go slapped the back of his head, causing Fred to wince. "The point is that Bullseye made sure everything was in place so that no one would ever know the truth. Not you two. Not the police. Not anyone. This guy went the whole nine yards on you. But you don't have to worry about him any longer. Or I guess the police, really?"

"You're not with the PD anymore?" Clint asked.

"No. I resigned." Kate rubbed the lens of her sunglasses. "Or rather I was forced to resign."

"Harsh."

"Really? That's all you have to say to me after all this time?"

"That's a lot to say for a dead person."

The team looked at each other, unsure what to do next. "You know, Kate. We can leave if you want to hash things out with him," Honey Lemon said.

"Nah, you guys can stay!" Clint dragged over one of the chairs and sat down backwards in it. "I haven't had this much excitement since...a while. You don't have much to do in the middle of Michigan."

"You went to Michigan?"

"Yeah, Kate. I told you that in my goodbye letter."

She glared at him.

"Oh yeah. Probably didn't get that either. Anyway." He grabbed the arrow off of the counter and started twirling it between his fingers. "The stories that I could tell you guys about Kate. She was just a young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed rookie when I first met her. And wasn't she the luckiest person in the world to get partnered up with ol' Hawkeye here."

Hiro looked up at Kate, who let out a heavy sigh. "That's what his nickname was among the precinct: Hawkeye. Set the record on the Firearms Proficiency course at the same time back when he was first assigned there. It was the best one in the entirety of Neo York."

"Really?"

"Meh, I was OK."

Kate's expression was incredulous. "Clint, you broke the old record by more than ten seconds and a thousand points!"

" _How_ many seconds?" He held up a hand to his ear. "Say it again."

"No."

Clint held the arrow in his fingers, his eyes traveling down the shaft. "Yeah, it was a pretty good one. _Was_ being the correct word, because some rookie decided to break it on their first try. Want to take a guess as to who that was?"

Kate, for the first time that Hiro had seen, started blushing as she cleaned up the mess from the box. "I was lucky."

Wasabi looked down at the man's leg, the one that he had been supporting with the cane. "Did that happen at the raid?"

"Yup." Clint knocked a fist against his right leg. "Me and Kate went to that building, and we didn't realize that the people we had been tailing were leading us to the rest of their gang. We barely got out of there, but not before they properly tore up my leg with bullets. The hospital was able to save it with surgery and a few rods put in, but that was it for me and law enforcement."

"Yeah...and who led you there?" Kate was done with the box and pushed it into the office. "Who told you that we were ready? Who told you that everything was going to be OK and we'd take it all down?"

"Oh my God." He threw his hands above his head. "Are you _still_ blaming yourself? Kate, it wasn't your fault."

"It was."

"It was _not_. We were partners, Kate. That's what partners do. Trust each other. Have each other's backs."

Hiro was getting an odd feeling that the words weren't just applicable towards the archer.

"Be there for them when the other is in trouble. You were there for me, Kate. That's all that anyone could ask of you." He grabbed her wrist so that she couldn't walk away. "I don't blame you for what happened. Besides, everything happens for a reason. If that raid hadn't gone haywire, I wouldn't have been able to find my next opportunity to help people."

"Oh, really?" Kate raised an eyebrow. "What's her name?"

"Hm?"

Go Go coughed and pointed down at his hand. Hiro saw a wedding band on his ring finger, one that Kate had invariably already noticed.

"Oh."

"She's a blonde, right? You always did have a thing for blondes."

Clint shook his head and got up from the chair. "Her name is Bobbi. You'd like her too; she's not as good at the grappling and archery and butt-kicking as you, or even Big Hero 6, but she has other ways to beat you down. Plus, she makes a mean chicken carbonara."

"Wait, back up. What are you talking about?"

Go Go had her phone on the news, and some video started playing on it. "Apparently, there was some amateur video being made of one of the tussles you had in the city. That got spread across the country."

"Th-that's not me," Kate stammered.

"Oh yeah, what _other_ archers do I know that could do half the things they're doing?" Clint cut in. "Kate, you didn't think that I would recognize the technique I showed you? I was your partner for three years. I taught you everything you know."

"Hold on." Hiro looked up to stare at Clint. "You do archery too?"

"Eh. I dabble." He started spinning the arrow on his finger. "After I had been with the police for a couple of years, my therapist recommended I take it up to deal with the stress. I did it before when I was young, so I was already familiar with it. But this girl..." He pointed over at Kate. "I started teaching her and oh boy, did she catch on. Before I knew it, she was getting better at it than me."

Hiro was very interested in more stories, but Kate didn't look like she was having any of it. "So why _did_ you come here, Clint? Don't tell me it was just because he called you."

"I came to support my old partner in her next career path."

Kate stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

"...OK, I _also_ came to give you something." He held up a long, cylindrical bag and unzipped the side of it. He slowly pulled out the contents for everyone to see.

It looked like a bunch of folded metal, but Hiro could tell what it was suppose to be. The grip on the handle was lighting up in red, ready to pair up with the quiver that he had made. It was the perfect compliment to what Kate needed.

"Kate." Clint looked her in the eyes again. "You're good. Really good. I saw the whole thing go down. You can make a difference, and I'm not talking about this shindig."

He threw his arm down, the bow rapidly unfolding to its full length.

"I'm talking about this."

He held it, the string side facing her.

"This is my gift to you."

Kate stared at the bow, the shine almost toying with her.

"Big Hero 6 could use someone like you on their side. Someone to help clean up the messes that people make here. You _are_ a hero, Kate. And you don't have to be in uniform to do it."

"Clint." She was shaking her head, her voice getting soft. "I know that I'm good, but...I'm not you. I'm no Hawkeye."

The man's arm was steady, the bow not wavering.

"The world's big enough for another Hawkeye, Kate."

Her hand very slowly came down on the grip, relinquishing it from Clint. She studied it for a moment, pulling back on the string to make sure it was taut. She looked back up at him, her expression now back to being focused.

"I won't let you down, Clint."

He smiled at her. "You never have, Kate. And you're not the kind of person that's going to start now."

She pressed a button on the handle, returning the bow back to its folded form.

"Just...don't break that thing too quickly, all right? It takes a while to make those, and I can only spend so much time on one before Bobbi starts talking to me about chores and whatnot."

"I can't promise anything."

"Fair enough." The man grabbed for his cane and started walking out toward the door. "Now, I'm really hungry. They don't feed you well enough on the planes anymore. I could use some sweet stuff."

"Then may I suggest some Drake's Shaved Ice?" Fred said, running up next to him. "It's right down the block."

"Oh man, I _love_ Drake's!" Now out the door, Clint pointed down the boardwalk with his cane. "Lead the way, my good sir!"

The rest of the group followed suit (with Kate locking up her new equipment in the office) and they turned to see Fred and Clint already halfway there, almost in a run together.

"Clint!"

The man either didn't notice her or didn't care.

"Ugh." Kate slapped her forehead. "Heart of a man and a brain of a child."

"Which one are you talking about?" Go Go smirked.

Wasabi chuckled as he started toward them. "I think I'm going to get some too. What about you, Hiro?"

"I'm actually going to head out." Hiro pointed over his shoulder. "I have...something that I need to take care of tonight. But I need to get home first. Come on, Baymax."

_"Goodbye, everyone."_

As Baymax got dragged off and Wasabi walked toward the two, that left the three girls by themselves. Kate was still shaking her head at her former partner's immaturity, but she was about to have a new problem.

Honey Lemon standing next to her, a wide grin on her face.

"What?"

The Latina's eyes went quickly to Clint to back again.

"What are you-"

Kate backed her head up, the blush returning.

"No!"

She turned to Go Go, ready to ask her to get Honey Lemon off of her back, but instead found an identical look on the Korean's face.

"Guys."

Kate whirled back toward Honey Lemon, now defiant.

"Really?"

One last look at Go Go, who hadn't budged.

"There's _nothing_ there."

She took a step forward and rotated back toward them. "Is that all you guys think about when you're not saving the city? Pair people up with each other? That's childish."

Kate turned tail and walked off toward Clint, clocking him in the back of the head as he got his extra large cup of shaved ice. The two roommates leaned next to each other as the two archers started arguing again, though not loud enough for them to hear.

"She's lying."

Go Go shook her head, her arms still crossed. "Nah. She's not."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I can tell. She doesn't say his name that way."

"Huh?" Honey Lemon said. "What way?"

Her eyes rotated up to look at Honey Lemon. "Oh, you know."

"No, I don't."

Go Go shrugged her shoulders. "Fine. I'll enlighten you. Even though you've gotten much better at it over the past year...you still talk in your sleep."

Honey Lemon recoiled at her statement.

"I wonder what names you've mentioned?" she said as she walked away. "I've really only heard the two. Your old flame Andre, and...who was the other one? Oh yeah."

She cupped her hand over her mouth, yelling down the boardwalk in a sing-song voice.

"Oh, _Frederiiiick._ "

"Go Go, don't you dare!"

* * *

_That night…_

Hiro thought that the meeting with Kate was going to get his evening started on the right track.

And it had. Slightly.

Kate declining the invitation to join the team wasn't completely unexpected. He knew that it would take a while for those scars to heal, which is why he made sure to let her know that it was an open one whenever she was ready. Whether that was in a month, a year, or whenever, it didn't matter.

But it would have been nice to have some sort of headway into what he had to do next.

Because he was much more nervous about this one.

He knocked on the door twice and stepped back. After a few seconds, it opened up to reveal the police chief, dressed in casual clothes.

"Hiro?"

"Hello, Chief Cruz."

"I wasn't expecting you to come over."

He had to get to the point quickly before his brain tried to turn his body around. "Is Megan home?"

"She is. Let me take you to her."

He kicked off his shoes and climbed the stairs with the elder Cruz. He heard her voice through the open bedroom door.

"Who's that, Dad?"

"It's Hiro."

He turned the corner and saw Megan in her bed, covers over her body and a sidetable with two bowls on it. Her expression brightened as the two walked in.

"Hey, Megan. How's jail treating you?"

She scowled at him, but he knew that she was jesting. Through a few text messages and calls, Hiro had found out that Megan had been grounded again for the stunt she pulled. This punishment wasn't as long as the previous one, but it seemed like it was more severe; she had mentioned that she wasn't allowed out of her room at all now.

"Or should I say solitary confinement?"

"Ha ha. Very funny."

"We were just finishing dinner," Chief Cruz said, nodding to the bowls. "You want some, Hiro? It's my famous five-alarm chili."

"I don't think I could handle one alarm, sir, but thank you for the offer." He looked over at the bedposts, expecting to see something there. "Megan made it seem like you were tying her down in her bed."

"She's exaggerating, Hiro." He put a finger on his chin. "But now that you mentioned it, I do have my handcuffs downstairs…"

"Do _not_ give him any ideas, Hiro."

"Sorry, sorry," he laughed. His attempt to lighten the mood wasn't going the way he had planned, but now he had to focus. He steeled his nerves up and asked Chief Cruz his question.

"Sir, can I talk to Megan?"

He quickly glanced at her.

"Alone?"

Chief Cruz narrowed his eyes.

"It won't take long."

He looked between the two of them and nodded. "Of course. Not a problem." He bent down and grabbed the two bowls off of the table. "I'll just...be doing the dishes."

The man was now halfway to the door.

"Downstairs."

Now he was in the hallway.

"And I definitely will not be trying to listen through the vent."

"Thanks, Dad," Megan said dryly.

He shut the door, and his footsteps tapered away, leaving the two teenagers on their own. Hiro turned back to her and started to open his mouth…

"Hiro."

She pointed across the room, and Hiro got the hint. He walked over and slid the lever of the air conditioning grate, closing it with a creak.

"OK, you're good."

Rubbing his hands together, he leaned on her mattress. "How are you doing?"

"I feel like I'm a prisoner in a cage. But hey, it beats being a prisoner in an exploding unfinished building, I guess. I was fortunate you were there to save me."

"Megan-"

"Hiro."

She stopped him, but not in malice. She still had a smile as she adjusted the pillow behind her. "Whatever you're going to say...just say it. I'm a big girl. I can take it."

That was reassuring. That would make this a little easier for him to say.

Or maybe not.

Hiro let a breath out. Yeah, leaning more towards the "not" part.

"Megan, I'm glad you're OK. We were worried about you. The first time you got kidnapped with Trina was rough. This one was so much worse. But everything turned out fine, including you. So...there's that."

"I appreciate that," she whispered.

He rubbed his forearm, taking a seat on the mattress.

"Megan, I've been thinking a lot about what's happened in the past week. Not just about Officer Bishop and Bullseye and all that. But also about you. And...me."

She continued to stare at him, patiently waiting.

"You _are_ a member of the team. I let my personal feelings get in the way of that. I thought that if I kept you out harm's way, you'd listen. But you're not like that. You always drive toward the story. Towards the danger. It's reckless, yeah, but that's something not a lot of people would do. You're really one of a kind."

Hiro felt her foot under the covers touch his arm.

"And you're not just a teammate. You're my friend. And…"

He paused, letting the rehearsed words scrolled down his mind.

"I care about you."

His gaze was now directly into the covers.

"I just don't...care about you in the way that I care about Karmi."

He could have phrased it a little better in his head, but that was the purpose of the follow-up.

"Karmi and I have gone through a lot of things in the past year. Her being taken advantage of by Liv, being turned into a monster, her parents taking her out of school, all of the personal things between us. All of the fights and making up and being near each other. I can't really explain it, but there's...I don't know.

"It's been rough, me not being able to talk to her or see her. When I was chatting with her online, it wasn't enough. Even when she came back and we went to the park, that still wasn't enough. I wanted something more than that. And now that she's been gone again with no way of knowing when she'll be back, I've just been a mess. And now this is just...complicating things."

Her face was unreadable, so he leaned a bit forward. "I'm not saying that I _can't_ feel the same way with you. Or that I _won't._ But right now, I...don't."

She was still staring at him, not saying a word.

"I'm sorry."

Megan was now smiling for reasons that he couldn't fathom. But he didn't have to wait long to find out why.

"That's a lot of words you had to use just to tell me no, Hiro."

"Megan, I'm not-"

She reached out and grabbed his hand, cutting him off. All he could do was hold it as her smile grew even more.

"Hiro, I should be the one apologizing to you. Not the other way around."

Hiro must have looked very confused, because Megan let out a giant laugh. "Yeah, that's the look that I was expecting you to have. But let me explain myself."

"OK."

He wanted to move. He wanted to do something so that she knew that he was listening. But the only thing that was happening was him staring into her eyes.

"Hiro, as soon as I met you, I knew you were a great guy. It took a while to get past all of your genius and...giant words that you use every day. But I always had a feeling that there was something there. And I know now that's Karmi."

She gingerly squeezed his hand. "I said before that I don't want to be _that_ girl, and I mean that. I don't want to be your back-up. I don't want to be your second choice. I don't want to be your...rebound. I want the way you feel about me to be genuine, and right now it's not."

" _I'm_ the one that let _my_ feelings get in the way. I wanted to impress you and make you feel like I was warranted for the team, and that led me into a situation where you guys had to save me again. I have to realize that there's a chance that that's not always going to happen. So, I think I need to take a step back and prioritize things. And I have to include you in that. But that part's easy."

"Why?" he muttered.

"Because you and Karmi have to figure things out. And until you do that, I have to make myself off-limits."

Hiro finally let his hand move, returning it to his side.

"Megan?"

"Hmm?"

"...What did Karmi tell you in those e-mails?"

For a moment, Hiro actually thought she was going to tell him. She looked like a nervous wreck, looking over at her desk and hugging herself. But finally, she returned her attention back to him.

And she was ready with the answer he knew she was going to give him.

"I'm not telling you."

He opened his mouth to try again, but Megan had heard enough.

"Hiro, I swore to Karmi that I would not tell you anything that she wrote to me, and I am going to keep my word on that. But you're the smartest person I know." She sniffed and wiped her eye. "You can probably figure it out."

Megan reached over to her phone.

"There is one other way you can find out."

She wiggled it in her hand for emphasis.

"You can call her. And ask her yourself."

"I can't do that."

"And why the heck not?"

Her tone had taken a sharp turn in the opposite direction, so much so that even Hiro was thrown off. "I-I can't. She said that with everything going on with the case and her parents, we wouldn't be able to talk."

Megan only smirked in response.

"And you actually believed her?"

Hiro blinked once.

"Boy, you do know that court proceedings, especially with someone underage, can only go on for so long, right? I've went with Dad to court a few times. It's not the giant slog that you might think."

She leaned forward a little bit more, taking the covers with her.

"And if the two of you didn't let fourteen time zones and a twelve hour difference stop you from seeing each other...then why are you letting a few miles and a phone line stop you?"

He wasn't comfortable with how right she was being right now. All of that was correct, but this wasn't just anybody they were talking about. It was Karmi.

"Hiro."

Megan's arm was now on his shoulder, pulling him into a half-hug. She bent her head down to whisper in his ear.

"I think she would really appreciate it if you called her. She _needs_ you. She needs you a lot more than I need you right now."

He was tired. This conversation had drained more energy out of him than he had thought. But he had to do one thing first.

Hiro snaked his right arm around her waist, pulling her in to complete the hug.

"Thanks, Megan."

"No problem...Genius Boy."

"Really?" he said into her shoulder.

"Yeah, she told me that one. It kind of fits too." Megan chuckled. "But I guess it means something else coming out of her mouth than mine." She slapped him across the chest. "Now, get out of here. Visiting hours are over, anyway. I'll talk to you later."

"Sounds good." He got up off of the bed and made his way over to the door. But right before he reached it, he turned back toward her.

"Megan?"

She had been focused on putting her phone back in her charger, so she didn't see him stop. Upon hearing her name, she looked up. "Yeah?"

"We're still friends, right? After all of this?"

She put on a big smile.

"Of course we are, Hiro. We're still friends."

Hiro returned it, waving her goodbye. Megan watched as he closed the door behind her and waited for the creaking of the steps to stop before leaning into the wall. She shook her head and wiped her brow, hearing the sound of his scooter start up and drive away.

"Yeah, Megan. You're still friends. You're _just_ friends. Just keep telling yourself that, girl."

She looked out the window, the light of the moon shining into her room.

"Maybe one of these days you'll actually believe it."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** So we have a lot to talk about. Kate. Hiro and Megan. A smattering of things here and there. And I know you've already read a lot.

But we have a phone call to deal with.

* * *

_Riiiing._

It was late at night.

_Riiiing._

Too late.

_Riiiing._

She wasn't going to be up.

_Riiiing._

But maybe she would be.

He pressed his phone close to his ear. He didn't want to miss it if she did pick up.

" _Hi."_

Hiro almost dropped the phone.

"Hey, Karmi. It's-"

_"You've reached my voicemail. I'm sorry I can't come to the phone right now. Leave your name and number and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can."_

It wasn't that long ago that she had called him a stupid idiot jerk-face on her voicemail message, but that had been in the midst of her thinking that Peni was his girlfriend and not his cousin. But the past events went to the backburner as the phone beeped, signaling the beginning of his recorded message.

"Hey, Karmi. It's...it's me. Hiro."

He ran his fingers over the edge of the to-go cup, the hot chocolate no longer able to be called that.

"You probably already figured that out, though."

Hiro glanced at the chair next to him. He wished that Karmi could be there again, putting her head on his shoulder under the stars just like before.

"I wanted to call and let you know that we're all thinking about you. We hope you're hanging in there. And we all miss you."

He paused. No, that didn't sound right.

"And... _I_ miss you."

He looked up to see the moon high above, as if teasing him about that night.

"Karmi, I...really want to talk to you. I want to hear your voice. I want to know that you're OK. And if I know you're OK, that will make me feel better."

Hiro got up from the chair and grabbed his cup.

"So if you get this message, and if you want to talk, call me back. And if you...don't...that's fine, too."

He meant to walk through the door to the stairs, but something caused him to look back at the table on the roof. If he squinted, he could almost imagine their past selves enjoying each other's company, their faces fixed on the video of him singing with Tadashi.

Which seemed like a lifetime ago.

"But I _really_ want to talk to you. I..."

Hiro shook his head, silently cursing the tear falling down it.

"I _need_ to talk to you."

He wasn't going to get any sleep out here. He had to go back inside.

"So, yeah."

Looking down at his phone, he saw that he was far past the time he had allocated himself for the message. Above and beyond what was needed.

But wasn't it always like that with her?

"Ummm."

Hiro couldn't help but smile. This was cathartic in a way that he didn't understand until now.

But he had to end it.

"I'll see you later, Karmi."

For now.

* * *

" _Good night."_

The message ended, and the phone went silent again. The profile picture of Hiro's face, still with that red handprint on his cheek, stayed on the screen.

A tiny drop of liquid fell right next to the picture.

Shaking her head, Karmi used her thumb to wipe the tear away.

"Oh, Genius Boy..."

Her index finger ran around the outline of the profile, and her mouth grew into a sad smile.

"What am I going to do with you?"

_THE END_

* * *

**OK, LET'S TRY THIS AGAIN:** I'm hoping that this ending with Hiro and Karmi will sort of bridge the gap between what I've written so far with the beginning of Season 3, or at least what we believe is Karmi's episode in "A Friendly Face". As always, I know that I write the two of them closer than they actually are in the show, but I'm hopeful that the episode will give me some sort of leeway into the next phase of my writing.

Or probably not. But we'll see.

I told myself very early on that I was going to try my best not to include any of the main Avengers into my stories. The reason for that was because I didn't want them to overshadow Big Hero 6 in their own fic. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to bring Clint into the mix, if just for this story. The relationship between Clint and Kate was something that I wanted to be the driving point into Kate's actions, and I hope I did it justice here.

So Kate is _not_ a member of the team. Not yet. She's got some things that she needs to figure out.

Then again, so does Megan. That's a thread that I'm not sure is going to be tugged in Season 3, but I hope it does. Megan needs some love, too.

And I hope that I did the whole Hiro/Megan angle justice as well. I do think that the relationship can be expanded upon, but as sort of an aside to Hiro/Karmi. The intent was never to push Megan out the loop entirely, but make her possible feelings for him another issue that Hiro has to deal with. I do hope that they at least mention that in the show. But with our luck, probably not.

And as for Chief Cruz...his story's not over either. I have a feeling about that.

As always, I want to thank everyone who left a review, kudos, comment, like, or anything else on this story. It looks like Kate brought in just as many people as Robbie, Peni, and Aspen did, so I'm glad you guys are finding her as interesting as the others.

By the way, no one tell Mr. Ben Juwono (writer for Big Hero 6 and supervising director for Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) that I used him as a pseudo-butt monkey for Kate to mess around with in this story. If he finds out, he'll send the Disney ninjas after me.

Or...any of the the writers for that matter. I can only hold off so many ninjas at a time.

So, as of now, that leaves one more person to go. Fortunately, we already know who it is. Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait for a little bit before the girl of squirrels gets her spotlight.

We have a new season to watch. And with that comes a new attempt at **Continuity** _ **.**_

That's right. **Continuity II: The Sequel** (subtitle pending) is happening. I haven't decided on whether I'm going to do two short stories in one try or split them to a Wednesday/Friday upload format to give each episode their due. I guess I should probably figure that out.

In the meantime, read and review, if you like.

And thank you, everyone, for your support. It means the world to me.

Until next time.


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